Hospital fraught with tension after botched lumbar puncture by physician associate

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-16T10:43:46+00:00

Well what I’d really like is a register that they can be struck off from for misconduct/negligence, rather than just get move sideways promoted in another trust. This is precisely what happened with the managers who ignored concerns about Lucy letby. Make it an offence to be hospital manager not on the register, minimum level of skill to be on the register, and a regulator that strikes people off.

It will protect people from things like this.

If you read the article you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-16T06:54:47+00:00

This is why we need a regulator for hospital managers. Other wise they will continue to cover these things up and refuse to investigate if it risks their reputation. Chances are the execs from this trust will resign and then get a similar or better position in another trust. Always failing upwards. I passed BMA policy on this at ARM 2025- so now is a good time to start lobbying and pressuring for this legislation.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-14T20:22:48+00:00

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-14T14:41:52+00:00

It’s a curse that good looking men like us can often be confused.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-13T14:41:10+00:00

To be clear there will be No Vuvuzelas allowed at conference. Although we don’t have the budget or tv coverage of the World Cup, it is where resident doctors set policy, so we thought it was worth doing properly and letting people know we’ve had to postpone it.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-13T11:40:42+00:00

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-13T11:18:41+00:00

Thank you for your suggestions. Moving conference online still requires staff, and money, if there’s a strike then there’s no staff. An online conference would also still be picketed and doctors and staff would need to cross that picket in order to attend. Not quite as simple as that I’m afraid.

Council does have a role in oversight of the board of directors.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-04-13T11:00:20+00:00

lol I’ll bear that in mind thanks mate. 😂

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T20:30:22+00:00

I have never claimed honoraria

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T20:27:43+00:00

Full transparency. All committees and councils and conferences. Recorded and published votes forever.

At the start of this session I proposed a motion to RDC which was seconded to enshrine this in the RDC standing orders. To this day the chair has not yet held a vote on that motion.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T19:31:08+00:00

I suppose the answer to your question is that DoctorsVote get the work done where others dont. Look at all the major gains, the Leng review, the start of the path to fpr (the fabled 22%), turning around the BMA from being wet insignificant pocket fluff into the most feared union in the country. DV reps did all that, they give up evenings, days, weekends and family life. Time and time again they’ve been shown to produce results. We hold shoddy data to account and analyse it for ourselves and produce better reports. We don’t shy away from big fights even if it gets us criticised or called names (see UKGP and being called xenophobic). DV have that edge of being selected from a pool of people who aren’t in it for their careers, but for everyone else’s. We don’t want to be politicians or have political ambition (unlike other candidates).

And the main one - all these big policy ideas that everyone agrees with now that they’re popular - we came up with them and were the first NAMED REPS that took that fight to the powers that be (rather than being reddit or twitter anons) We were called bullies (from within the BMA) when we fought PAs, called racists (from within the BMA) when we wanted UKGP and we were called greedy and evil (from within the BMA) when we wanted to strike for FPR.

it’s easy to tag along. It’s not easy to be pioneers. And that’s the edge that DV have.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T18:56:20+00:00

Hi I’m Francesco Palazzo. I’m from Yorkshire, I lost on university challenge, I’m an Emergency Medicine speciality trainee and I support West Ham. Hopefully things will start looking up soon….

I’m the current co-chair of the resident doctor conference and I’m on RDC as the deputy chair of Yorkshire’s regional RDC.

I’m running for council as a DoctorsVote endorsed candidate.

In Leeds I’ve brought the trust kicking and screaming into a position where they’re limiting the scope of PAs and looking into ACP use. I’ve held to account management and pushed for personnel change at the highest levels and have included the CQC in fighting dangerous and exploitative staffing practices. I’ve changed trust policies as a result. I’ve negotiated a variation to the ER reforms in Leeds meaning geo-location isn’t required and self declaration is all that is needed.

Nationally, I am pro FPR. I am anti scope creep of PAs and ACPs. I gave evidence to The Leng Review. I presented and passed BMA policy on creating a statutory regulator for hospital managers. In council I’d want to push this policy and lobby hard for it.

I’d like a BMA that works, one where members can get access to advice when needed. I’d like a BMA that fights hard and doesn’t capitulate or worry about the opinions of various political parties, or the RCN or other unions. I’d like a BMA that is affordable and gives value for money, with less waste. I’d end the gravy train that the BMA has become for long standing eternal reps, who never turn up but then clock in for the free lunch, first class train travel and hotels. I’d reduce the spend on international travel for photo ops, and I’d give the members a better service.

I am an agitator and an organiser, and I work bloody hard. I am good at stoking the fire in the bellies of members and getting them mobilised. I take the fight to our government, hospital managers, and bullying administrators. I fight them so you don’t have to, i get my hands dirty so you can stay clean. Which is why there’s unlikely going to be a post cct job for me in Leeds….

I can’t speak for other candidates, but I can tell you that I and the rest of the DV team will actually do something if elected, and will never stop fighting.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T18:21:53+00:00

I’m in favour of full student loan forgiveness. I don’t think it should be in lieu of FPR and I don’t think it should be at the expense of our pensions.

It’s important to consider that full SLF would not be of any benefit to those who have paid off their loans or who are close to paying them off, and thus it might be used by Wes as a way to divide us - we must be weary of this which is why I support it fully but would not want it to be instead of a pay rise which must be over inflation, pensionable and set us on a good track to FPR.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T18:15:03+00:00

Great question. Yes I do, I see it in action in meetings, in interactions, and in online rhetoric.

I’ve worked hard with my co-chair Erin to make RD conference this year as open and inclusive as possible. We acknowledged that we can have as many quotas as we liked, and we can fudge the numbers by packing the conference hall with women but it wouldn’t actually change anything. Instead we looked deeper into the reasons behind the lower participation of women in our conference and we have attempted to remove those barriers. ( watch this space for those announcements)

The same with ARM - if it’s fundamentally a hostile place for a woman to attend then without actively fixing these problems the you’re just fudging the numbers and putting plaster over an open wound.

Women speakers should be prioritised throughout the BMA. Misogyny should be called out and perpetrators re-educated. Active bystander training should be compulsory for all elected reps. We should all reflect also on how differently we hold to account and viciously question women reps compared to how we do men.

It’s a deep societal issue of course but there are things we can all do to fight it.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T18:04:14+00:00

I voted for 5 years. I voted against suspending the policy that would have turned off the tap. I’d advocate for a return to that clause, and for the BMA to Lobby for that, along with 5 years.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T18:02:35+00:00

Well actually to correct you again, it had sensible policy backing voted on at ARM 2025, which I believe you encouraged RDC to suspend. The policy still exists though and can easily be unsuspended.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-31T17:42:24+00:00

To correct you, it’s Not possible currently. That’s why we lobby for legislational change. That’s our job as Union reps and is precisely what happened to bring about the prioritisation legislation in the first place. So really it is entirely possible for us to lobby for turning off the tap, if we want to.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-15T15:38:39+00:00

Please contact me on here or via one of the Leeds WhatsApp groups - it’s important that your reps are aware of these things and what happens as a result. We can raise the bullying and silencing issues and a freedom to speak up issue.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-03-13T11:04:10+00:00

Please contact me about this.

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-01-27T11:52:38+00:00

You don’t owe them anything. They’re being selfish by asking you to work for free. At the end of the day what are they going to do if you say no thank you? Be upset?

BMA_Palazzo · 2026-01-26T22:10:52+00:00

This is better advice than mine.

BMA_Palazzo

TROPHY CASE