NHS Strike

[denislawsbackheel]

Health workers went on strike yesterday but it was not reported much by the media

You living in a bubble?
It was all over the BBC.

So the NHS has to put patients first before workers pay according to the weasel Hunt.
Not principled enough to give up his 11% rise though is he?
He's an utter Twat.

 

[urmston]

Millions of workers who pay taxes to fund the NHS have had a much worse time over the last 10 years or so than the NHS staff who went on strike.

The NHS has had next to no job losses if any, and the NHS pay freeze is luxury compared to the job losses, pay cuts and short working weeks suffered by lots of private sector workers.

And NHS staff still get superb terms and conditions including great pensions and better than average holiday allowances.

The strikers are selfish.

 

[metalblue]

Millions of workers who pay taxes to fund the NHS have had a much worse time over the last 10 years or so than the NHS staff who went on strike.

The NHS has had next to no job losses if any, and the NHS pay freeze is luxury compared to the job losses, pay cuts and short working weeks suffered by lots of private sector workers.

And NHS staff still get superb terms and conditions including great pensions and better than average holiday allowances.

The strikers are selfish.

You need a new gig, your wumming is becoming predictable. Shame really as you're not terrible at it.

 

[bluemoon32]

Think you're being harsh Urmston but some of the wages i've seen bandied about in the media haven't shown the enhancements for shifts etcand just show the basic salary, hugely misleading.

 

[cyberblue]

Millions of workers who pay taxes to fund the NHS have had a much worse time over the last 10 years or so than the NHS staff who went on strike.

The NHS has had next to no job losses if any, and the NHS pay freeze is luxury compared to the job losses, pay cuts and short working weeks suffered by lots of private sector workers.

And NHS staff still get superb terms and conditions including great pensions and better than average holiday allowances.

The strikers are selfish.

dream on

 

[urmston]

Millions of workers who pay taxes to fund the NHS have had a much worse time over the last 10 years or so than the NHS staff who went on strike.

The NHS has had next to no job losses if any, and the NHS pay freeze is luxury compared to the job losses, pay cuts and short working weeks suffered by lots of private sector workers.

And NHS staff still get superb terms and conditions including great pensions and better than average holiday allowances.

The strikers are selfish.

You need a new gig, your wumming is becoming predictable. Shame really as you're not terrible at it.

Not as bad as you are at debating a topic though if that's the best you can do in reply to my point.

NHS staff were still getting pay rises long after they became a distant memory for many UK workers.

They enjoyed years of very generous treatment from New Labour's financially catastrophic regime, during which time their wages boomed from quite good to excellent for their skill levels.

The general public employs NHS staff, and millions of the general public are still having a very hard time.

When their employer is having a hard time most employees are grateful to hang on to their jobs, and sensible and considerate enough to recognise their employer's difficulties.

They don't go on strike demanding pay rises.

 

[metalblue]

Think you're being harsh Urmston but some of the wages i've seen bandied about in the media haven't shown the enhancements for shifts etcand just show the basic salary, hugely misleading.

It varies from hospital to hospital but those that work 24/7 wards do get extra for working Sundays, bank holidays and unsociables but they also get deducted breaks. IIRC Mrs MB when she was on the ward (now a specalist nurse) would have to work an extra 18 hours a month for "free" to make up for her breaks which she rarely took.

She thinks nurses are paid ok. I disagree with her, the work they do and the effort they put in is worth much more. Obviously no nurse/doctor/paramedic enters the profession for money but that doesn't give us the right to take the piss.

 

[Drewmanc]

Are you kidding me? We're bullied by management types and are on a pay freeze. We work 12 hour mixed night and day shifts and due to the demand on the service we often work 14 hour days/nights just to offer the public an absolutely necessary service. I don't remember the last time I got my breaks on time - last shift I worked 9 1/2 hrs before I got my 30 minutes and missed my 20 minute break altogether. How is that conducive to a healthy and effective front line staff? We get put on final warnings for just being off sick etc we live in a culture of fear for our jobs yet still have to be the most professional we can be at all times no matter day or night. Any complaint from the public no matter how insignificant and were treated as guilty until proven innocent. On top of that we have a registration body called the HCPC who monitor us and can revoke our practice license on a whim due to aforementioned complaint. If we step out of protocol, even if it's going to save a life, were sacked. Years of training and dedication lost. The service runs on overtime, if we stopped doing overtime the service would collapse. All this for my yearly wage of £22,000 after tax and deductions, and when my pension finally comes at 67 it's more than likely I'll be dead by 72 due to the effect my job has on me. We don't have it easy by any means. I worked as a HGV mechanic for a while, £500 a week I was taking home for a 40 hour week (albeit nights) but I had no job satisfaction and shit loads of job security and was earning enough money to put away for a really decent pension and retirement at 65. Now I earn very little and work ridiculous hours but I love my job and see the good we do for people every day.

 

[metalblue]

Millions of workers who pay taxes to fund the NHS have had a much worse time over the last 10 years or so than the NHS staff who went on strike.

The NHS has had next to no job losses if any, and the NHS pay freeze is luxury compared to the job losses, pay cuts and short working weeks suffered by lots of private sector workers.

And NHS staff still get superb terms and conditions including great pensions and better than average holiday allowances.

The strikers are selfish.

You need a new gig, your wumming is becoming predictable. Shame really as you're not terrible at it.

Not as bad as you are at debating a topic though if that's the best you can do in reply to my point.

NHS staff were still getting pay rises long after they became a distant memory for many UK workers.

They enjoyed years of very generous treatment from New Labour's financially catastrophic regime, during which time their wages boomed from quite good to excellent for their skill levels.

The general public employs NHS staff, and millions of the general public are still having a very hard time.

When their employer is having a hard time most employees are grateful to hang on to their jobs, and sensible and considerate enough to recognise their employer's difficulties.

They don't go on strike demanding pay rises.

For their skill levels? hahaha, you have no idea.

Were? Nurses get incremental pay rises every year (capped per band). You should do your homework before getting involved.

I'd debate with you if you had a clue.

 

[urmston]

You need a new gig, your wumming is becoming predictable. Shame really as you're not terrible at it.

Not as bad as you are at debating a topic though if that's the best you can do in reply to my point.

NHS staff were still getting pay rises long after they became a distant memory for many UK workers.

They enjoyed years of very generous treatment from New Labour's financially catastrophic regime, during which time their wages boomed from quite good to excellent for their skill levels.

The general public employs NHS staff, and millions of the general public are still having a very hard time.

When their employer is having a hard time most employees are grateful to hang on to their jobs, and sensible and considerate enough to recognise their employer's difficulties.

They don't go on strike demanding pay rises.

For their skill levels? hahaha, you have no idea.

Were? Nurses get incremental pay rises every year (capped per band). You should do your homework before getting involved.

I'd debate with you if you had a clue.

If anything, nurses pay could probably be reduced gradually over the next few years.

Recruitment is unlikely to be a problem as applications for nursing courses are oversubscribed many times over and the educational requirements for getting on the courses are reasonably modest. Nursing is a job which does not require a high level of intellectual ability and educational attainment and this means there will always be lots of people able to do it, and in the current economic situation where jobs are scarce that will ensure a ready supply of applicants.

It is important that public money is used wisely by the government and not used to pay staff more than the market requires.

As public employees NHS staff should realise that they need to shoulder their fair share of the economic difficulties of their employers.

At the moment they seem to be telling us that they should be insulated from these difficulties and should be able to maintain their standard of living while the rest of us tighten our belts.

 

[bgblue]

Ok then :(

 

[che_don_john]

My girlfriend is a registrar. She earns twice the annual salary that I do, yet we worked out that our hourly rate is almost the same. On Friday she ended a 12-day stretch of 12-hour shifts. Last week she came home from work splattered in someone else's blood. She's tired, stressed and depressed; in any other line of work she'd be able to see someone about it - her boss, occupational health, a counsellor - but in the NHS this just isn't an option (you'd think that if any line of work understood the importance of the health and well-being of its workers, it would be the medical profession!).

Unfortunately, she can't switch to General Practice (as what most doctors do if they hate their speciality) as she originally started there (she moved to G & O as she wanted to do surgery). If you are suspended from General Practice because of malpractice or incompetence, you can reapply at a later date; but if you leave voluntarily, even to just switch speciality, there's no going back. You'd think it would be in their interests to keep doctors in the medical profession, especially when we have such a shortage of GPs, but their pettiness gets in the way.

And as she's tertiary staff, she can't strike. Her and her colleagues just have to cover for those who can. Imagine if the NHS was a corporate/commercial entity; it would never get away with treating and over-working its staff the way it does. It would be commercial suicide, for one thing.

Before I met her I was a huge fan of the NHS - I still am, from a patient's perspective; free healthcare is one of the best things this country has - but having been given an insight into the complete omni-shambles that is is I'm starting to regret supporting those protests against privatising certain aspects of the service. It urgently needs a shake up.

 

[york away to this!]

Wasn't it for 20 mins or something. Wow, damaging. Lol.

...the time spent working on an eight hour shift...

 

[BlueBearBoots]

salary info widely available on the net, for example - An Adult Nurse -

Salaries for Band 5 under the NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) Pay Rates (the entry point for graduate nurses) start at £21,388, rising to £27,901. Salaries in London attract a high-cost area supplement.
Salaries at senior level (Bands 7-9 in the NHS) range from £30,764 - £98,453.
Comparable rates of pay exist in the private sector. Contact individual providers for details.
Payments for unsocial hours are made to NHS staff. For example, time plus 60% is paid for working on Sundays and public holidays.

 

[urmston]

That Sunday working is paid at a 60% premium rate in the NHS is indicative of the relatively generous terms and conditions that still exist in much of the public sector and which no longer exist in much of the private sector.

Many NHS staff are under the mistaken impression that they are badly done to because things are not quite so rosy for them as they once were, but if they ever had to work for the average private firm they'd get the shock of their lives to see what terms and conditions most taxpayers now have to put up with at work while they earn the money that is taxed to pay for the NHS.

 

[Bigga]

Are people seriously begrudging NHS staff that regularly get abused by patients in language, sexual behaviour and attitude, to name some? Patients that defy rules, nearly blowing up the wards with their smoking, patients attempted suicides, patients that die you were talking to the day before, like mother and babies trying to beat the odds and both live, cyclists, motorists, pedestrians, drunkards falling off balconies, gun shot victims, gang related incidents. Staff can get blood on them, faeces, vomit, not to mention exposure to all manner of diseases nor the psychological impact of what they can see on a daily/ weekly basis.

A heck of a lot of staff are genuinely run down, don't look after themselves and are depressed. Lots can't share their day with their partners/ spouses cos it's the same sh*t every day, if not worse.

Sure, not all hospitals are so dramatic, but general hospitals are like this daily.

And, you begrudge them, why again...??

 

[TangerineSteve17]

With people in the medical profession the things I definitely don't want them to be are underpaid, overworked or undervalued.

They save our lives occasionally don't they. I want them happy, and on the ball.

 

[G-Star Medium Rare]

No one has mentioned part of the financial problem was that Cameron was too thick to understand the financial implications and the de- stabilisation of the NHS that Lansleys top down reorganisation has cost.
Thousands of managers had to be paid off to go, and are now brought back as " consultants" on higher salaries to try and keep the show on the road, which given the 0.4 % increase in NHS funding Cameron has provided is not sustainable because he has diverted millions from the NHS budget to try and partly compensate for the cuts in Social Services. Smoke and Mirrow's allows him to say NHS budget has been increased, (by 0.4%) but then about 4% is diverted back to Social Services ,= a cut not to mention the millions paid out in redundancy costs.
One or two GPs are making a fortune out of this as Chairmen of Clinical Commissioning Groups. They get their GP pay plus thousands to cover the costs of locums to do their real job whilst they are faffing around Chairing " commissioning " meetings!

 

[FantasyIreland]

Are people seriously begrudging NHS staff that regularly get abused by patients in language, sexual behaviour and attitude, to name some? Patients that defy rules, nearly blowing up the wards with their smoking, patients attempted suicides, patients that die you were talking to the day before, like mother and babies trying to beat the odds and both live, cyclists, motorists, pedestrians, drunkards falling off balconies, gun shot victims, gang related incidents. Staff can get blood on them, faeces, vomit, not to mention exposure to all manner of diseases nor the psychological impact of what they can see on a daily/ weekly basis.

A heck of a lot of staff are genuinely run down, don't look after themselves and are depressed. Lots can't share their day with their partners/ spouses cos it's the same sh*t every day, if not worse.

Sure, not all hospitals are so dramatic, but general hospitals are like this daily.

And, you begrudge them, why again...??

My thoughts and feelings exactly mate.

Highly trained and experienced staff are leaving in droves and yet ignorant people like 'urmston' think there's nothing wrong and (highly intelligent and educated....)people should just be grateful for having a job.

So Urmston.......If they are on such a brilliant number,please care to educate us why so many are seeking alternative employment?

 

[Ammy]

That Sunday working is paid at a 60% premium rate in the NHS is indicative of the relatively generous terms and conditions that still exist in much of the public sector and which no longer exist in much of the private sector.

Many NHS staff are under the mistaken impression that they are badly done to because things are not quite so rosy for them as they once were, but if they ever had to work for the average private firm they'd get the shock of their lives to see what terms and conditions most taxpayers now have to put up with at work while they earn the money that is taxed to pay for the NHS.

This is shockingly narrow-minded view.
The average tax-paying private sector worker has no clue of the conditions NHS workers have to deal with on a daily basis.
They have my admiration and my full support.