TY - JOUR T1 - Health care in hard times: holding the line JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 340 LP - 341 DO - 10.3399/bjgp17X691757 VL - 67 IS - 661 AU - Roger Jones Y1 - 2017/08/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/67/661/340.abstract N2 - As a wounded administration limps into the Brexit negotiations, and our cities reel from unprecedented events, the central importance of a properly-funded, public healthcare system has never been greater. We can only guess at the longer-term repercussions of the political and social tragedies of the first half of 2017, but we can be pretty sure that the National Health Service will need to think of ways of keeping up standards without much, if anything, in the way of new resources. The health service, and the people that work in it, is now in the eye of the storm of austerity, social inequality, violence, fear, and loss. Doctors, nurses, and everyone else in the service are being faced with the consequences of the religious, cultural, political, and socioeconomic divisions and conflicts that successive shocking crises have exposed. If ever there was a time to pull together and stand shoulder to shoulder, it is now.A first priority must be to secure the NHS workforce. We depend heavily on the contribution of clinical and non-clinical colleagues from all parts of the world, and to a very great extent on those from the EU. Ensuring that they are not merely made to feel welcome, but are reassured that this is the case in law, is crucial. The application procedure for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ is too slow and tortuous to achieve this in time. Senior medical colleagues, whose homes are in mainland Europe, are on the verge of moving overseas because of the uncertainty that they and thousands like them presently face. Abandoning this senseless bureaucracy and … ER -