Campaign Update #7: World Patient Safety Day
78 more healthcare workers join the call to action
First of all, a big hello to all of the new subscribers who have joined us recently.
We had a big anniversary yesterday - two whole months of #ThereForME! It’s been a whirlwind since we kicked off the campaign in July and we can’t wait to see where the next few months take us.
Last week was another big week for the campaign. To mark World Patient Safety Day, we sent an open letter signed by over 200 healthcare workers to Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The letter expressed concerns about the safety of ME patients within the NHS and called for urgent action.
Media coverage and a social media storm
One of our goals for World Patient Safety Day was to pile on the pressure after a disappointing initial response from the Department of Health and Social Care to our letter last month from over 2,600 patients and carers. Hopefully the media coverage of the letter from healthcare workers has helped.
The World Patient Safety Day letter was featured in The Times, making it to page two of the print edition (front page here we come!). The story in The Times included an interview with Dr. Binita Kane, with whom we collaborated on the letter and who has now joined our extended team as our first #ThereForME Ambassador.
The BBC also ran a story about Becky Williams, a doctor from Leeds who signed the open letter and helped to coordinate signatures. The story about Becky was covered as the top item on BBC Look North Yorkshire, with an interview from #ThereForME co-founder Karen Hargrave. On Sunday, the segment about Becky and the letter made it into national BBC Breakfast coverage on BBC2 and was run on the BBC News channel. We extend the biggest of thanks to Becky, who couldn’t have done a better job telling her story.
To mark the occasion, we also created a a World Patient Safety Day media storm, getting #WorldPatientSafetyDay and #ThereForME trending at no. 5 in UK Twitter/X. A huge thanks to everyone who got involved, showing that our community is a real force to be reckoned with. Our World Patient Safety day graphics are still available online, so it’s not too late to join in the action if you missed out last week.
More signatures
Finally, after the media coverage of the open letter we had lots of interest from healthcare workers keen to sign it, so due to popular demand we spent a few more days collecting signatures. In the end 78 more healthcare workers added their names, bringing the total number of signatures to 280.
We’ll leave you with the list of new signatures below, all of which have been added to the letter here. We’ve stopped collecting signatures now but hope to be coming back to the topic of patient safety - so watch this space.
We’ll see you next week!
Dr Rory Gilligan - FY2 Doctor, Wessex, Wessex Deanery
Larissa Robson - Practice Nurse, Cumbria
Sejal U Patel - Pharmacist, Grove Pharmacy Bookham
Soram Patel - Pharmaceutical physician, London
Dr Adam Marnell - GP, Merseyside
Louise Humphrey - Clinical Specialist Children's Physiotherapist, Devon, Torbay Hospital
Dr Amour Patel - Anaesthetics Registrar, London
Dr Dee Burrows - Nurse, Devon, Energise Health & Lived Experience Consultancy, Long Covid
Dr Clare Singleton - GP, Greater Manchester
Dr Graham Lloyd-Jones - Consultant Radiologist, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Brian Hughes - NHS Executive, Northern Ireland
Dr Hannah Preston - Doctor registrar, Scotland, Lothian
Dr Jane Macaskill - Consultant Surgeon, Scotland
Dr Emma Weisblatt - Consultant in Developmental Neuropsychiatry (retired September 2024), East of England, University of Cambridge
Dr Jenny Ceolta-Smith - Retired Occupational Therapist, North West England
Dr Jane Preston - Consultant Gynaecologist, East of England
Susan Hedgeley - Physiotherapist (Medically Retired Long Covid), Scotland
Dr Lydia Dodd - GP, Merseyside
Victoria Kinsey - Speech and Language Therapist (medically retired), Suffolk
Jacqueline Roberts - Clinical Scientist (Medical Physicist in Nuclear Medicine), West Yorkshire, Leeds Teaching Hospitals
Donna Louise Merritt - Nurse Practitioner, North West
Karen West - Physiotherapist, AHP Lead Long Covid, South Central
Isabella Howes - Paediatric Registered Nurse, London
Dr Rebecca Hyslop-Peart - Consultant, Manchester
Dr Raymond Haddock - Doctor Medical Psychotherapy (retired), Yorkshire
Dr Stephen Taylor - GP, Manchester
Dr Rosemary Haddock - Medical Doctor (Gastroenterologist), Scotland
Kirsti Otterson - Paramedic, Newcastle
Helen Skiffington - Occupational Therapist (currently too unwell to work due to Long COVID), London, Long COVID Physio
Dr Isla Hislop - GP, Scotland
Ed Bateman - Paramedic, South West
Dr Nicholas McGivern - GP Registrar, South Yorkshire
Dr Kevin Deans - Consultant Chemical Pathologist, Aberdeen
Christine Pearson - Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Dorset
Dr Neera Jaitly - GP, Surrey
Natalea Purnell - Emergency Nurse Practitioner, Bristol
Angela Marsden - Advanced Nurse Practitioner in General Practice (medically retired), East Sussex
Jane Harriman - Nurse RGN and nurse manager (retired), South Yorkshire
Lindsay Skipper - Physiotherapist, South East England
Evelyn Walton - Nurse lecturer and Advanced Nurse Practitioner, North of Ireland
Rosemary Papachristopulos - Nurse, Northern Ireland
Robin Collins - Advanced Physiotherapist, Lancashire
Charlotte Rawlinson - Pharmacist and ME Association Health and Social Care Project Officer, North Yorkshire
Liberty Mellor - Registered Nurse, Lancashire
Dr Ailsa Stuart - Clinical Psychologist, Oxfordshire
Linda Campbell - Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Primary Care, Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland, Chair and Healthcare Professional Advisor for the Charity Hope 4 ME & Fibro NI
Emily Ellett - Dietitian, Leicestershire
Kate Turkentine - Registered nurse, Bristol
Dr Carolyn Lott - GP, Midlands
Orla Sullivan - Specialist Occupational Therapist, Lanarkshire Scotland, Covid Rehab Team
Fiona Wood - Registered nurse (retired), Bournemouth Dorset
Carole Bruce - Psychotherapist, Gloucestershire
Grainne O'Connell - Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Northern Ireland
Elizabeth Scott - Therapeutic Radiographer, Yorkshire
Georgina Lidgey - Radiographer, South West
Dr Isaac Matthias Buhagiar - Foundation Doctor, Scotland
Gillian Davidson - Speech and Language Therapist, Scotland
Alma McQuade - Art Therapist, Northern Ireland
Dr Claire Vandevelde - Consultant Rheumatologist, Yorkshire
Janette Hopkins - Associate Director of Nursing (retired), North West
Jennifer Vaudin - Health Visitor (no longer in practice), East Midlands
Rose Bannister - Dietitian, Lancaster
Lara Brummell - Dental Nurse, Derbyshire
Dr Robert Harrison - GP, Devon
Dr Linda Dykes - Consultant in Emergency Medicine and GP, West Midlands
Dr Saksham Bansal - Orthopaedic SHO, Manchester
Dr Antony Natt - GP (retired), East Midlands
Olivia Hoare - Occupational Therapist (retired on ill health), Bristol
Laura Maloney - Occupational therapist, Wales
Cara Eryl Howe - Registered Band 5 Nurse, East of England
Sue Dumps - Specialist nurse (retired), Brighton
Nicola Jones - Senior staff nurse, South East
Jen Wandel - Speech & Language Therapist (ill health retired), London
Lauren Stevens - Physician Associate, London
Dr Katie Nisbet - Junior Doctor, Manchester
Elizabeth Biggs - Occupational Therapist, South East
Rebecca Scott - Registered Nurse, Brighton
Natasha Wilkinson - Physiotherapist, London
My thanks to everyone behind the scenes and who contributed to this. Really appreciate your efforts.