This doctor’s takedown of Nigel Farage is blistering stuff
A doctor has delivered a blistering takedown of Nigel Farage and the NHS should put it on prescription, it’s so good.
It started when Nigel Farage said Brexit fears about the NHS were the ‘most extreme form of Project Fear yet’.
This is the most extreme form of project fear yet, these people are an absolute disgrace. https://t.co/9J4DJCRQsC
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) August 16, 2018
A doctor called Rachel Clarke saw it and wouldn’t let it go. And we’re very glad she didn’t.
1.
Dear Mr Farage, as an NHS doctor who cares for terminally ill inpatients, let me tell you what’s disgraceful. 1/n https://t.co/jYIXmzGdzz
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
2.
Disgraceful is an NHS hospice forced to close a *third* of its beds because some its nurses – wonderful, extraordinarily kind individuals – feel so unwelcome now in Britain they have been driven home to Spain, Portugal, Italy etc. 2/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
3.
Disgraceful is the racism, abuse & hate unleashed by your foul & toxic referendum campaign – and, in particular, the racism towards EU staff we have witnessed, post referendum, in my own NHS hospital. 3/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
4.
Disgraceful is dying patients trapped in their homes, in desperate need of an NHS hospice bed, who I cannot treat – because the beds are closed – because EU nurses have been driven away by post-Brexit hate. 4/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
5.
Disgraceful is having to look a World War Two veteran in the eyes, as he weeps and trembles with relief that at last – at last – a hospice bed became available for his dying, desperate wife. 5/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
6.
Disgraceful is an NHS *already* short of 40k nurses and 10k doctors, yet haemorrhaging more daily thanks to the hateful impact of Brexit. 6/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
7.
Disgraceful is the staggering – and sustained – 96% reduction in applications to the NHS from EU nurses since the referendum. 7/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
8.
Disgraceful is people like you whipping up the hate that has caused all this misery – then trolling doctors like me who bear witness to its horrible, inhumane fallout, every day at work. 8/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
9.
So, Mr Farage, next time you talk about disgrace, and seek to denigrate doctors like me, wash your mouth out and wind your neck in. 9/n
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
10.
Because patients are vulnerable – so incredibly vulnerable. And if you really were a man of the people, as opposed to the racist demagogue you are, you would show some goddamn humility about the human cost of what you’ve done. 10/10 ends
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
11.
And incidentally, @Nigel_Farage, if you want to debate the facts pertaining to Brexit and the NHS, please invite me onto your show to do so, rather than making ad hominem attacks on my profession. @LBC
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 16, 2018
And here are a few ways people responded online.
https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1031202813995433984
Passionate, powerful thread from an expert. As a former hospice doctor I couldn’t agree more https://t.co/YRH4V6Zjus
— Dr Phillip Lee MP (@DrPhillipLeeMP) August 20, 2018
Dr Rachel Clarke @doctor_oxford is @Nigel_Farage’s worst nightmare to interview about Brexit & the NHS. She’s a doctor with an academic background in politics and she talks in an evidence based, factual and truthful manner.
Please RT if you want a Farage Vs Clarke @LBC debate https://t.co/fHYO10KcIq— Clive Peedell (@cpeedell) August 19, 2018
In an ideal world, this doctor would be waiting for a word with Farage every time he got off his tour bus https://t.co/vjQonK3EyS
— Marina Hyde (@MarinaHyde) August 20, 2018
Judge this one for yourself, people. I’m not on those wards. @doctor_oxford is. https://t.co/lgB55ae9bu
— Shelagh Fogarty (@ShelaghFogarty) August 17, 2018
Dr Rachel Clarke is smart, compassionate and well-informed. Read her brilliant take-down of a man who is none of the above.https://t.co/ZGg4nGnQXC
— Trisha Greenhalgh #FBPE (@trishgreenhalgh) August 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/terry_moran1/status/1030155059496210432
And finally …
Not a word of response from @Nigel_Farage to this thread, despite its 8,000 retweets and 1.3 million impressions in 24 hours.
Perhaps, Mr Farage, you'd invite me onto your @lbc show this Sunday, 10am-12pm, to discuss Brexit and the NHS in person?
You're not scared are you? https://t.co/hJs3pwdYLT
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) August 17, 2018