Nurses Strike -Do you support? What will it look like?

25Avalon

17.6% pay rise?! Sorry we just can’t afford that much at the moment. Even Labour don’t seem to be supporting it yet. That’s not to say they don’t deserve a pay rise. Perhaps it could be done in increments. Interesting long letter in my local paper from a retired hospital administrator who more or less advocates going back to the old HMC system and cutting the number of administrators and their salaries. He says there shouldn’t be CEO’s but secretaries who are part of the team. I’ll try and copy it if I can.

The current Labour hierarchy doesn't think anyone should strike. Wasn't a sitting MP deflected after joining a picket line. They are no longer the party of the worker, the unemployed or the vulnerable, and I say this as a former party member.
Tory lite.

Nurses are appearing at food banks..

Casdon

Before we get diverted down a manager bashing route, here is the accurate information about relative costs, numbers etc.
www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/key-facts-figures-nhs
To be clear, long term underfunding of the NHS is the issue not over management, that’s just a lazy political excuse for the long term neglect of the NHS by the government - it’s a deliberate political strategy.

I think that article should be pinned to the top of the thread!

Nurses used to get a small salary when they were training on the wards
Training included a long shift , study, and lectures
Now they do a University degree , practical experience on the wards in a block , no salary , and end up with huge debt like other students and their salary has to take this debt into consideration
Nurses homes are History , accommodation is very expensive and the work is hard , paperwork is mind boggling , everything has to be noted , double checked and this while patients need answered , it’s not a vocation it’s slave labour , it needs to change

There are few people who go on strike for the hell of it. Usually they have come to the end of their patience and, of course, going on strike means you are worse off in the short term. Nurses were there throughout a pandemic and many died or were left with long term covid effects. People stood on their doorsteps and clapped to show their appreciation. Well the reality is their wages haven't kept pace with inflation and they struggle to live. Would you want to be nursed by someone who was starving or worried about paying bills? They are professionals who have studied and deserve a decent salary. If more is expected of them, then they should be paid more. I support them 100%

"The current Labour hierarchy doesn't think anyone should strike."

Rubbish.

They do have the view that sitting MP's shouldn't join picket lines, thats another matter altogether, and the reason why is that you cannot support ANY strike across the board in their position. support depends on a whole complex set of decisions according to any particular strike.

Totally support the nurses. I know I couldn’t do their job. Undervalued and overworked.

I work in a job that has traditionally been regarded as "vocational". For me & others of my colleagues it was never regarded as a "vocation" but was/is a job that we chose for various different work/lifestyle factors & does not mean that we aren't good at it.
Can we please stop using the excuse that a job is "vocational" as an excuse for underpaying people.

PS -on the size and number of Trusts - well, its possible that there could be room for some amalgamations in very small Trusts since I don't know them,

but for example ours (and both medical and mental health trusts are striking on my area, don't forget to think of both1) covers the whole of a large city AND surrounding small towns and that is a huge amount to manage and could not get bigger without losing sigh of practicalities.

BTW, are people aware that there are amalgamations at a higher level on the way already for certain services?

Ie, we have been matched up with 3 more surrounding trusts and intentions are to facilitate among other matters the move to care homes/freeing up beds/stopping the practice as far as possible in Mental Health of sending patients all round the country due to lack of beds in acute cases at huge expense)

Oldbat1

Totally support the nurses. I know I couldn’t do their job. Undervalued and overworked.

Me too, Oldbat1.

I can't help remembering the recent posts we had on here in defence of abolishing the bankers' bonus cap and cutting taxes for the wealthy. Wanting 'more' seems to be perfectly acceptable when it's the wealthy who want more...

(I have recently till a month ago been a Governor on the local MH trust so have been to these amalgamation meetings, but my personal opinion TBH is that at the moment its adding just yet more tasks for stretched managers to undertake instead of immediate patient care concerns)

Long before I qualified as an RGN nurses have been crying out for a pay rise. Striking wasn’t an option in our profession, something we would never have agreed to as we were backed into a corner by governments who knew we upheld the Nightingale Pledge, similar to the Hippocratic Oath upheld by medics but I wholeheartedly feel enough is indeed enough and I back today’s nurses 100%.

The Nightingale Pledge has been discussed before on GN. I've also asked my sisters (both retired nurses) about it. It's not routinely used in the UK. Are you American?

fullfact.org/health/nurses-industrial-action-nightingale-pledge/

Wyllow I don't see that amalgamating trusts would reduce the need for management either.

Of course they should strike. And I'd like to see Labour MPs standing with them on the picket lines. Some Labour MPs stood with the striking rail workers. I hope even more will join the nurses.

I feel there are so many worthwhile professions out there, from police to supermarket workers, to teachers, etc.; surely they realise that at the moment, due to furlough (which not everyone got) and the huge issues the country faces financially, they should suck it up and get on with the job for now. The time for prosperity is a good few years away. (Unfortunately).

I agree that Nurses need a pay rise and their working conditions looked into.

I am not a fan of strikes by anyone, I doubt if anyone is happy with their procedures being cancelled/delayed however, I do not know what the alternative is.

There are also other ways they could help nurses and healthcare staff. Don't they have to pay for parking, and also get charged if they overrun (which might be due to being late leaving their shift). I believe some of them are struggling due to parking charges and parking fines. That is disgusting, they should have free parking at all times. A hospital should not charge its workers to park because it could not function without its staff. In effect nurses and others are being paid less than their salary because they cannot enter the hospital without first coughing up for parking!

Maybe they could use the £350m a week we are saving by leaving the EU😂

I used to work in a hospital in a non nursing role. I got to know a lot of the staff including the head of the nurses school. There was talk then of how little nurses were paid. She told me that nursing was a vocation and if people wanted more money we would get the wrong type of nurse, ones who were only in it for the money.

Not sure where these figures are from Blondiescot - I am an agency nurse with 40 years experience working throughout pandemic in NHS hospitals for approx £17 hour weekday( band 5) - from this I have to pay parking, uniform, mandatory training, yearlyDBS check etc . Are NHS nurses only paid £6 an hour if we are paid 3 X more ???

LittleDot

I feel there are so many worthwhile professions out there, from police to supermarket workers, to teachers, etc.; surely they realise that at the moment, due to furlough (which not everyone got) and the huge issues the country faces financially, they should suck it up and get on with the job for now. The time for prosperity is a good few years away. (Unfortunately).

Furlough has nothing to do with it. It's just being used as an excuse to prevent wage increases and cut services.

Investing some money in our public services (all of them, because they're all underfunded) would go a long way to improving our economy.

The moral viewpoint, do nurses “deserve” a pay rise doesn’t really come into it. Pay doesn’t operate on moral goodness.

The bottom line in any job that employers want doing is

Are there enough people able and wanting to do the job, at the current pay and conditions, to meet the need.

If the answers no then either pay or conditions (or both) are wrong and need to be changed or the employer can’t function.

Or, of course, the other alternative is to just do away with the job 🤔☹️

I don't think they should need to strike and I find it difficult to support at this present moment in time but can understand that this is probably also an optimal time. I would like to see medical staff on a salary which is protected from inflation but in return they lose their right to strike. I would also like to see the Budget given to the NHS divided and earmarked for clinicians with a maximum percentage of the budget spent of admin. This should be further broken down to limit the amount of money spent on media staff and inclusion staff. With the best will in the world, we need more clinicians and less admin.