so what is the blueprint of the bma, tell us about the plan and what it wants to see done differentlyong with the discussion about christmas, a lot is being focused on what should happen once lockdown ends on the 2nd of december. we had the government advisers this week at the government advisers this week at the daily press briefing mentioning we may need to strengthen tiers to stop the british medical association i think is having its aid today and is suggesting we do need tighter restrictions than we did have. their particular concern is the rule of six, which can allow people from different households to come together in the following day you can be mixing with people from other households. what the bma wants to do is really tight and that restriction, so you are only getting together with one other household. that means if the infection does spread in a group, it's limited to those two households, whereas if you are seeing multiple different people across several days, the virus can spread much more. they think this could be a really important way of keeping the virus down over t

we're joined now by the chair of the bma council, dr chaand nagpaul. good morning.ritical conditions. what we do not want is a repeat of what happened after the first lockdown where we brought down infection levels and then had a surge because there was a relaxation of the lockdown and people mixed more and we went back to square one. what we want to hear from the government well in advance of exiting is a clear exit strategy. in the absence of government information on this we produced proposals for what we believe needs to happen when the lockdown is eased. those measures cannot go back to the previous system of tiers because they did not work. it is vital not only the government should speu vital not only the government should spell out what needs to happen when we exit lockdown, but also, as we speak, we need to have a test and trace speak, we need to have a test and tra ce syste m speak, we need to have a test and trace system operating. we cannot afford to bring the infection down, people sacrificing weeks by staying at home and then, when we exit lockdown, th

the stress and fatigue faced by nhs staff during the pandemic by the chair of the doctors‘ union, the bmahere were already high levels of stress and anxiety. and doctors were describing things like, you know, the emotional impact of having to hold a smartphone or an ipad as being the vehicle of contact between patients in their last days of life and relatives — just imagine a whole hospital without any visitors. could the end of the brexit transition period mean checks on more foodstuffs going from great britain to northern ireland? the first and deputy first minister have written to the eu commission, warning of the impact on food supply chains. the member might recall the famous issue around lasagnes from great britain into northern ireland. frankly, it is a nonsense because, as far as i'm concerned, the lasagne comes over in a supermarket truck, which goes to a destination in northern ireland and is sold in sterling to a consumer. so, what is the difficulty? the government suffered more defeats in the lords on its internal market bill. critics warned it would force devolved administrat

the bma produced last week an exit plan from the national restrictions in england and we need to learnry where we saw the more stringent tier 3 areas we were seeing some reduction in virus transmission but we need to learn from that. we cannot afford to let down our guard because this virus is still very prevalent in our community. what makes you think tier 1 was too weak and a waste of time? we saw rises in the prevalence of infection in those areas and certainly in some tier 2 areas as well so we can't afford that, particularly as we are going the winter months and into january and march. we need to really drill down on what the good work of the nation in the last few months. we need to see people recognise the problems of social distancing and washing your hands well, keeping their faces covered whenever they are not able to social distance. we need to keep oui’ to social distance. we need to keep our guard to social distance. we need to keep ourguard up to social distance. we need to keep our guard up because this virus isn't going to go away. what about christmas? we hear the gove

the mps then heard from the chair of the doctors' union, the bma.that even before the pandemic, there were already high levels of stress and anxiety. a former health secretary saw a way to improve things. the nhs and the government have still not published their ten—year workforce projections, which are the independent assessment of how many doctors we're going to need in ten years' time, how many nurses, how many ahps and so on. and ijust wondered how important is it for morale, for doctors, to know, even if we don't have enough doctors now, we are at least recruiting enough for the future? i think it's vitally important that while we, you know, acknowledge the constraints of today, to know that there is a very clear plan of addressing these shortfalls. remember, this was an experience that no doctor or nurse was prepared for, to see so much illness and death in their workplaces. i mean, to imagine being in a hospital that has no visitors. and we were doing surveys throughout the pandemic, tracker surveys, and when we asked about mental health, we

the bma suggests replacing the rule of six with a two household rule, to reduce social mixing, banningent local lockdown tiers and giving local public health teams a bigger role in the test and trace system to make it fit for purpose. the question of christmas poses a real dilemma. 0n the one hand, any relaxation of the rules risks a rise in infections but a ban on mixing and christmas could well be ignored by a significant number of people and that could make breaking the rules feel more normal, leading to even more infections in the new year. dominic hughes, bbc news. our health editor hugh pym is here. officials want us to have christmas? yes, this is the first time we have heard from senior government advisers, from the health and scientific community at a briefing at downing street this morning. you would expect them to be very cautious about making predictions. susan hopkins of public health england, when asked, said yes, we are very keen to have christmas as close to normal as possible and in a nswer to close to normal as possible and in answer to my follow up question, is some

. >> trevor: damn, democrats want o bma to come down instead of joe biden.once you go barack you fever go back. poor joe biden. i mean he is president-elect but democrats are all still like obama. everybody, let's get a democratic senate for joe. >> who the hell is joe, obama. >> but yes, both parties are descending on georgia for these two senate races and if you live in georgia, can i just say i'm so sorry for what is about to happen in your life. you thought the text and tveds were bad before? that shut is getting run 50 timeses a minute, volunteers will be popping up in your dreams, hi, sorry to interrupt your weird unicorn sex dream, can we count on you on january 5th. >> there will be so many ads now is the perfect time to cut the cord and cancel your cable. wait, not right now, not right now, after the show, after the show. whooo, that's better, that was close, don't do that again. one reason both parties think at the both have a shot in the georgia senate run is the presidential race there was surprisingly tight. joe biden did come out slightly ahead

the bma has created a blueprint with suggestions as to how a new system should look.n to reduce social mixing. the government says its infection control guidance is under constant review. the chair of the bma council, dr chaand nagpaul, spoke to bbc breakfast earlier and said that the priority has to be stopping the spread of the virus now and that the next few weeks will be crucial. what we must be guided by is the safety of our nation. i think it's very hard at the moment to make predictions on what will be the case in december, which is why we're saying we need to have those measures put in place now and the public need to understand what will be expected when we exit lockdown. none of us want to see a situation over christmas where you've got the mixing of generations, of grandparents mixing with grandchildren and then finding that some of the most vulnerable in our society end up becoming infected. none of us want that and therefore i think it's premature to talk about that. we need to bring the infection down. that's our priority today — to try and reduce the sp

the bma suggests replacing the rule of six with a two household rule, to reduce social mixing, banning giving local public health teams a bigger role in the test and trace system to make it fit for purpose. the question of christmas poses a real dilemma. 0n the one hand, any relaxation of the rules risks a rise in infections but a ban on mixing at christmas could well be ignored by a significant number of people and that could make breaking the rules feel more normal, leading to even more infections in the new year. dominic hughes, bbc news. the spending watchdog says ministers set aside normal standards of transparency as they scrambled to secure supplies of personal protective equipment at the start of the coronavirus crisis. the national audit office says firms recommended by mps and peers were given priority in contracts. andy verity reports. from the start of the pandemic to the end ofjuly, government contracts worth £18 billion were awarded at high speed, using emergency rules to bypass the normal competitive tendering process. most of the contracts were to suppliers of personal

from a medical perspective there are a number of charities like samaritans and front line 19 that the bma i need to speak to somebody. there are certain processes in place at the moment that people can see, myself, personally, i have my own specific ways of detaching from the hospital when i get home because it's something that you don't want to play on you whilst you are not at work. i think work is intense enough for all of us and that's from the very domestic level to the highest, senior consultant and management level in the hospital, i think eve ryo ne level in the hospital, i think everyone has the same exposure, even if you are not clinically seeing patients, being around the hospital itself. finally, and briefly is your hope for this inquiry as mps take evidence from front line health workers? what would you like it to achieve? can you repeat that, please. what is your hope for the inquiry as mps take evidence, testimony, from front line health workers? what would you like to see it achieve? honestly, iwould like it achieve? honestly, iwould like it to raise awareness of some of t

you think about the british medical association, i am a member, bma has said strong supportive thingsll require a mobilisation effort to do this. but health professionals get that and they understand that this is one of they understand that this is one of the most important, if not the most important vaccination programmes we have done for decades. from that perspective, i don't mind telling you that i have had the conversation at home that if i can help with this on some evenings and weekends, doing extra vaccination sessions, and i am going to. that's a given, if i can be useful. and i think people approaching this with that attitude. june. approaching this with that attitude. june. you have asked whether another vaccine might pick the post and take over the lead. we have heard such encouraging results this week. i can't predict these things. we haven't got to that clinical review yet, but the same high standards of safety, effectiveness and quality will be adhered to by the mhra, whatever vaccine candidate comes to us. there is perhaps a question in your mind, how can we handle mul

give the regulators a chance to look at the dossiers that are going to be provided to the fda or a bmas hard to contradict sirjohn bell, but it is important to also put the logistics into perspective and the privatisation exercise that now has to happen, because there isn't going to be unlimited supplies, even if these results hold true in the larger follow—up studies that are still going on and, really, we need to carry on with the trials. we must keep collecting the data, we need to look prospectively at the duration of protection delivered by this vaccine. and we also need to whether the datasets have been approved by the datasets have been approved by the regulators so that emergency approval could be given. other vaccine candidates would have to follow suit. thank you so much for that and for putting it all into some context for us. thank you. and we'll be putting your questions on the first effective coronavirus vaccine in a ‘your questions answered' to dr markjit — professor of vaccine epidemiology and a member of the sage scientific advisory group — at around 3.30 this afternoo

i am sure you have seen the bma asking for more funding and the chancellor has announced more money fors? simply what the chancellor has announced it is not enough. the impact of the virus in terms of backlog of treatments and in terms of demand for new care, people suffering from long covid, mental—health problems, long—standing issues before the pandemic in terms of workforce shortages and capital for working environments, not to mention social ca re environments, not to mention social care and public health, it is not enough to tackle the issues the nhs and social care will face. we have spoken about comparing where we are with what was happening in april. from the staff you have spoken to, those concerns you have for mental wellbeing of staff in the nhs and the medical profession, where do you think things are compared to how it was at the height of the pandemic?” think the base note in pretty much eve ryo ne think the base note in pretty much everyone i speak to is how tired teams are. they have worked at this level of intensity in terms of the virus and trying to maintain and rest

we have been working with gps, with the bma, the royal college. it complicated, but, you know, i hope thatitis complicated, but, you know, i hope that it is relatively straightforward for people to get the jab by going to their gp by their pharmacist, the flu jab. and then of course the covid roll—out on top. i don't deny it is a huge amount of work for the nhs, and i am very grateful to them for their unbelievable shift that they have pulled this year. we have still got to deliver this this winter. how concerned are you about shortages of nursing at the moment? you will know a couple of weeks ago at the royal couege a couple of weeks ago at the royal college of nursing warned that the widespread shortages in the nhs could lead to staff burn—out, risk patient safety, it cited 40,000 registered nursing vacancies. this is something you are responsible for andi is something you are responsible for and i ask this because we were talking about the ability to hand out vaccinations, an ambitious vaccination programme, but the whole point of that is to ma