Yesterday the hashtag #IAmTheDoctorWho started trending, with tens of thousands of NHS staff posting Tweets or pictures that finish the sentence with touching stories of patient care.
#iamthedoctorwho worked yesterday, and comforted a girl in her 30s because she has was told her cancer will be fatal pic.twitter.com/0rkIY5mQIR
— Dr. J S Gotha (@jsgotha) February 11, 2016
#JuniorDoctorsStrike #IAmTheDoctorWho operated on your skin cancer pic.twitter.com/EGx1ioRxrV
— BroomfieldJuniorDocs (@broomfieldJnrDr) February 9, 2016
#IAmTheDoctorWho feels PRIVILEGED to be there for you when you hit rock bottom.??❤️#JuniorDoctorsStrike pic.twitter.com/aTzy1gAynP
— Wear Your NHS (@wearyournhs) February 10, 2016
The Twitter campaign is a collection of heart-warming reminders of the very critical relationship between doctors and patients. A reply hashtag #IAmThePatientWho has also started trending, with patients all over the UK sharing personal stories and thanking junior doctors for helping or saving their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
#IAmThePatientWho has #HLHS Without NHS docs I'd be dead. Without @Jeremy_Hunt my life wld be unchanged. Who counts? pic.twitter.com/hvfgNPwmcX
— Helen Calvert (@HeartMummy) February 11, 2016
#IAmThePatientWho nearly died giving birth but didn't thanks to the NHS. #IAmThePatientWho believes @Jeremy_Hunt is in the wrong job!
— Beth Bone (@BB576) February 11, 2016
Inevitably, for every Twitter campaign there is a Twitter backlash, and the sceptics should really learn to pick their battles; calling out doctors who are posting about saving lives for spelling mistakes is probably not the right battle. Other trolling reactions have included: “This hashtag has sapped any last shred of respect for junior Drs I had by it’s [sic] tacky display of emotional blackmail.”
Sadly, following yesterday's strike, it has just been announced that "Ministers are expected to impose a contract on junior doctors in England later after a final offer was rejected by the British Medical Association." The BBC Health Correspondent Nick Triggle commented: "The big unknown is how the British Medical Association and medical workforce will react. Behind the scenes there has been talk of more strikes, mass resignations and non-signing of the contract."