A LEADING Scottish doctor has said a Tory MP and fellow paediatrician has put her party over poor children’s welfare by opposing free schools meals.
Dr Lucy Reynolds, a consultant paediatrician in Glasgow, was among 2200 children’s doctors who signed a letter backing footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign.
She is angered by the failure of Conservative MP and fellow medic Dr Caroline Johnson to back the proposal in the Commons last week.
Johnson, also a consultant paediatrician, who went to fee-paying Gordonstoun School in Moray, is facing mounting anger from her professional colleagues after some 2200 paediatricians signed an open letter to Boris Johnson at the weekend urging him to adopt the policy in England. The policy is already in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The letter to the Prime Minister was organised by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Reynolds said she found it difficult to understand why a children’s doctor would not back Rashford’s campaign.
“I’m one of the over 2000 paediatricians who signed the open letter. I was glad to see the email from our college in time to be able to sign it, because I feel so strongly about the issue,” she said.
“Not only do free school meals reduce hunger, but they guarantee at least one meal a day is of a good nutritional standard, containing the protein, minerals and vitamins that are so important when the body and brain are still developing.
“I specialise in child development and disability, so I’m acutely aware of the importance of good nutrition in pregnancy and childhood, and how poor nutrition as a child can have a lifelong negative impact.”
Asked about Dr Johnson voting against free school meals proposals, she added: “I find it difficult to understand how, in all conscience, this fellow paediatrician would just vote with her party rather than advocate for an intervention so appropriately focused on improving child welfare.
“One of our duties laid out by the General Medical Council is to ‘protect and promote the health of patients and the public’. This was a great opportunity for her to do just that for children in poverty.”
Dr Johnson, who became a Tory MP in December 2016 has also been a consultant paediatrician since 2012.
The doctors’ letter to the PM stated that ensuring children have enough to eat is one of the “most basic human responsibilities”.
It said: “Every day, we see the impact of hunger and malnutrition in our work as paediatricians. It is not unusual for us to care for children who don’t have enough to eat or who don’t have access to a substantial meal outside of what is provided
in school.
“We call on the UK Government to match the pledges of the Welsh and Scottish Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive, to continue to provide children from low-income backgrounds with free meals over the coming weeks and to then extend this at least until the Easter school holiday.”
Johnson, MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, who works part-time as a consultant paediatrician at Peterborough City Hospital, backed the government’s position.
Russell Viner, president of the Royal College, said at the weekend he had “rarely seen such anger among our members”.
Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNP’s health spokesman at Westminster, said: “Caroline Johnson is in a position to speak up for improving the health of children and protecting them at this difficult time and she chose not to.”
The National has approached Dr Caroline Johnson for comment.
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