Even nurses have to pay bills and rent, you know

[Northerner]

Around two-thirds of Unison NHS workers have voted to back what could become the first major strike action over pay for 32 years. Nurses, occupational therapists, healthcare assistants, porters and other NHS staff are "demoralised and demotivated", because 70% of nurses and 60% of NHS staff are set to be denied the proposed universal pay rise of 1% for the next two years, when real pay has fallen dramatically over recent years.

Other ballots must take place before industrial action becomes a reality, with the Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, saying that, in the event of a strike, they would work with NHS employers to minimise the impact on patients. It's sadly unsurprising that, even at this early stage, unions are forced to pre-empt the cyclical guilt-tripping of NHS staff. Which is felt most of all by nurses, always in danger of going from "angels" to "fallen angels" within the beat of a wing.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/21/even-nurses-have-to-pay-rent-and-bills

This is madness, they are driving nurses away from the profession by destroying morale and making it uneconomic by denying them independently recommended pay rises, and at the same time forcing hospitals to pay through the nose for agency staff. At the same time they praise the 'growth' in the economy largely driven by house price increases making life even more unaffordable for people whose incomes cannot keep pace 😡 I'm disgusted that things have been alowed to reach this point

 

[Riri]

If I was a cynic I'd think it's a ploy by the government to destroy the NHS. Let everything crumble and when it's all falling apart around our ears, turn round to the electorate and say 'see it's not working' and then sell it off. I'm very fearful over what's happening.

 

[Northerner]

If I was a cynic I'd think it's a ploy by the government to destroy the NHS. Let everything crumble and when it's all falling apart around our ears, turn round to the electorate and say 'see it's not working' and then sell it off. I'm very fearful over what's happening.

I don't think you need to be a cynic to think this, sadly

 

[MacG3]

./ Rant on

The social contract with medical staff was broken well before 2010 and the chinless wonder came into power. Unison, the guardian and Labour are all to blame in a mixture of mistakes, either by omission or inclusion of the social concept of multiculturalism.

There was a shortage of nurses going back to the late nineties, and hospitals and the NHS decided the best way of filling this gap was to import nursing staff from other countries, both inside and outside the EU. Of course this was a lot cheaper than making these positions pay the market rate that would encourage more British citizens to take up training.

The net result is that this, as well as in other industries has lowered the average salary and broke the contract of supply and demand. It is still going on today, put yourself in the position of a hospital manager, you need more staff and you can hire them from abroad cheaply rather than training up the locals, which option do you go for? You run recruitment workshops in Spain, India and other countries.

Up until last year you couldn't comment about this because to mention immigration was considered the same as stripping naked, painting yourself purple and dancing on a table singing "I'm racist look at me!"

Arguing about a short term problem such as pay levels today, which I personally think are abysmal, will not fix the problem for the future. You want first class nursing staff for the next twenty years then you have to look at encouraging people to start training now with the protection for their investment by assuring them that they won't get sold out in the future.

You have to put career pathways in place so that a person starting work today as a health care assistant has a career progression, should they choose and have the aptitude, to work their way up the medical ladder.

But hey, it's easier to just blame the current government for the symptoms rather than doing a diagnosis to the underlying problem.

./ rant off