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Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints

by Dr Gary Sidley
23 July 2024 3:30 PM

On July 9th, the Daily Sceptic published my article describing how three healthcare providers had reinstated a requirement for staff, patients and visitors to wear masks in all clinical areas. I also urged the readers who recognised the perniciousness of this restriction (a.k.a. the rational among us) to show their displeasure by lodging a formal complaint to the offending organisations. Today I can announce some good news: two of the errant establishments have now reversed their mask impositions.

The first health provider to backtrack was Manx Care (which runs health and social care services in the Isle of Man). After reinstating the need for face coverings on its premises on June 27th, this nonsensical, ideologically-driven measure was lifted on July 16th. A spokesman said:

Whilst masks are no longer universally required in Manx Care’s patient-facing settings, colleagues and visitors are reminded that they should do whatever makes them feel safe.

Its reverse ferret on masks is to be welcomed. As for the “whatever makes them feel safe” comment, I guess this is a reasonable suggestion; in a purportedly free country, people should be able to wear what they want, be it a clove of garlic around their necks, a lucky charm bracelet on their wrists or a strip of porous plastic across their airways.

The second organisation to do a volte-face was Worcestershire NHS Trust. On July 18th a spokesperson announced:

Following a significant reduction in the number of Covid positive patients in our hospitals, as well as a reduction in their length of stay, the requirement for masks to be worn in clinical areas has now been lifted.

While the Trust is trying to rationalise its rapid backtracking on the basis of less people registering positive on tests that are prone to error and bordering on meaningless (for example, they fail to reliably detect those that are infectious or imminently symptomatic), it deserves credit for promptly ditching its requirement for face coverings.

So two out of three healthcare providers quickly seeing sense is encouraging news. The outlier which has yet to retract its mask imposition is University Hospitals of North Midlands. However, there are indications that even in this bastion of pro-mask lunacy there is widespread non-compliance with the mask requirement. For instance, here are testimonies from two supporters of Smile Free (a campaign group opposed to mask mandates) that suggest that sanity is prevailing:

I’ve been to the University Hospital of North Midlands (Stoke on Trent) today prepared for battle about wearing a mask but I’m very pleased to report that the majority of people were not wearing a mask, not even all the staff.

May I take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work regarding this crazy means of control!

Email received July 10th

Another Smile Free member wrote:

I had a great response from the hospital in Stoke. In my second e-mail to them, I asked if I would still be given medical treatment if I refused to wear a face mask. In reply they said that nobody would be denied care or medical treatment for not wearing one. This more or less seems to be an admission that they cannot enforce this.

On a more negative note, the initial responses from the pro-mask healthcare providers to the multiple complaints were a familiar mix of evasion and dubious justifications. The Complaints Team of University Hospitals of North Midlands stated:

As you will appreciate, being a major teaching hospital we have a significant number of patients that are immunocompromised as well as some staff. Our priority is to protect these individuals as much as we can whilst in our care as well as comply with our duties under the Health & Safety at Work Act.

Similarly, Sarah Shingler (Complaints Officer for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals) wrote:

With the number of Covid-positive patients increasing, we have reintroduced the use of masks in all clinical areas for staff, patients and visitors until further notice. This measure is necessary to protect colleagues and our patients from the risk of infection, and we are grateful for the support of those visiting and working in our hospitals.

Both these initial replies to formal complaints from members of the public implicitly assume that masks constitute an effective viral barrier and are not associated with a range of harms. The empirical evidence suggests otherwise (see here and here). As if this mono-focused obsession with one virus was not bad enough, Ms. Shingler aloofly dismisses complainants by stating:   

We do not have anything further to add to this statement; please note that we will not respond to any further correspondence on this subject and will only register and investigate formal complaints which relate to direct experiences of the services at our hospital from patients or visitors who have attended… Any further emails received at this address which do not meet this criteria [sic] will be filed without response.

The propensity for those in positions of influence to mindlessly mimic the decisions of others was witnessed all too often during Covid. Therefore, the actions of one NHS Trust will potentially have ramifications for the rest, and it is legitimate for U.K. citizens – irrespective of geographical location – to make their concerns known to the pro-mask outliers. Also, it would be wise for complaints officers to pause and reflect that it is the country’s taxpayers who provide their salaries before they high-handedly dismiss their concerns.

But overall, the fact the two out of the three healthcare providers who recently re-imposed mask requirements have now jettisoned this restriction is grounds for celebration. And, given that these reverse ferrets occurred so quickly (in less than three weeks), it is reasonable to suggest that the multiple complaints submitted by Smile Free members and Daily Sceptic readers may have had an impact. In this increasingly technocratic world, it is refreshing to believe that visible dissent from ordinary people can achieve change.

Dr. Gary Sidley is a retired NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist and co-founder of the Smile Free campaign opposed to mask mandates.

Tags: COVID-19Face maskHospitalsMask MandateNHS

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17 Comments
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Claphamanian
Claphamanian
2 months ago

Powerful evidence that should prevent any merger of Reform UK with the ‘Conservative’ Party.

Though the greatest puzzle is why so many people still vote Tory.

13
0
klf
klf
2 months ago
Reply to  Claphamanian

Indeed. The Tories must never be trusted with power again.

10
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
2 months ago
Reply to  Claphamanian

Good enough for my father and his father before him.

Seriously, I was brought up to think that The Conservatives were the right party to vote for – and indeed did so for many years. Cameron/Clegg put a dent in that for me and then Cameron with his reluctant Brexit referendum. It slowly dawned on me that recent PMs are barely tolerated by their party for a while and that the idea of a united Party backing certain policies (even if they’re in the Manifesto) is a pipe-dream – and to Hell with what the electorate want.

I know most here will realise but I think it worth repeating that the 2016 Brexit referendum was only the third time a UK-wide referendum had been held. The first was about staying in the EEC, the second about the voting system to elect ‘our’ MPs and the third about staying in the EU. Note there was never a referendum about joining the EEC or EU.

9
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
1 month ago
Reply to  soundofreason

The pro-EEC campaign led by the government spouted a mass of lies that led one minister to hope that the people never found out or they would be toast. Moving forward to the 2016 the Call Me Dave government which should have stayed out of campaigning spaffed £9m of taxpayers money on a propaganda booklet full of lies sent to every household. The establishment went full on Remain and I think that won the vote for Leave, given their campaign was woeful, as people wanted to give them two fingers.

5
0
sskinner
sskinner
1 month ago
Reply to  Claphamanian

It is the Civil Service that run the show. They are mostly OxBridge and the same Universities that Russia recruits it’s anti-western spies.

4
0
Smudger
Smudger
1 month ago
Reply to  Claphamanian

Puzzle too is why the article title wasn’t headed ‘Tories use tax payer money to promote pro immigration charities’

1
0
Jeff Chambers
Jeff Chambers
2 months ago

Our money being spent on the Establishment’s project of The Great Replacement. This must be the first time in history that a people has had to pay for the invaders who are being imported specifically to replace them.

Last edited 2 months ago by Jeff Chambers
11
0
Art Simtotic
Art Simtotic
2 months ago

Labour is Marxist
Tory was Labour
Reform is Tory
Far Right a figment.

Hoolie blowing through open Left Overton Window for decades. Lord Cameroon threw away Right Window key, Mrs Maybee boarded Right Window up, Mrs & Mrs De Pfeffel climbed in through Left window and commissioned ruinously-expensive designer-makeover of soft furnishings.

Meanwhile, Tommy’s window has bars.

Last edited 2 months ago by Art Simtotic
9
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
2 months ago

We Got a Problem; The Lie That Never Dies. Hits the nail on its head in his usual blunt way:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXNe1Vc6dKk

1
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 month ago

Meanwhile, back in the real world ( and well away from the ‘NIMBY’ peeps ), what happens if these migrants abscond from their digs? Are they actively monitored in any way? I guess they need a fixed address in order to get their handouts but they’re also ripe for getting involved in gang life and other criminality, which I presume pays more than the state;

”The quality of life is rapidly degrading in the country, attributed often to mass immigration. A follower tells where absconding migrants end up & what they get up to.

“Hi David I was speaking to two men a few weeks ago that work for a major car park company in the north who came to collect materials from my work I give away for free to local garage’s etc. for soaking oil spills.

“They came to collect some for wait for this, Mopping up urine, faeces & vomit from 5 car parks in the north that are overrun with migrants who sleep in the car parks at night & defecate in stairwells lifts etc every night.

“They told me around 15 are in each carpark on a nightly basis and they are ones that have run away from hotels, He said they beg on the streets during the daytime and shoplift etc.

” They told me the police aren’t interested and border force have been told but nothing has happened 2 years into it starting. The police told them it’s a civil matter because it’s on private property.”

“Keep up the good work”

https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1905583016572842443

7
0
sskinner
sskinner
1 month ago

All intentional for the great revolution? The following must be recognisable in today’s Britain, or any Western nation.

“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
Lenin

“The best way to destroy the capitalist system [is] to debauch the currency.”
Lenin

“There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.”
Lenin

“It is acceptable to suffocate democracy for the sake of socioeconomic equality”
Lenin

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth”
Lenin

“To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit, a luxury of worry-free and aimless people. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim”
Lenin

3
0
Art Simtotic
Art Simtotic
1 month ago
Reply to  sskinner

“To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.”
Solzhenytsin

Last edited 1 month ago by Art Simtotic
4
0

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