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

Where are you getting that figure from, Prentice? My daughter assures me she doesn't earn that much and she's got a couple of years' experience under her belt now. But the strike is about more than just pay - it's also about the working conditions. I think those who think they already get paid enough have no clue about what it's like to actually be a nurse in the current NHS.

Nurses are expected to work over their allocated hours without being paid,you sometimes can have your hours back, if staffing levels are reached , unfortunately this doesn't pay the bills. They see the hospital using agency staff who are being paid sometimes double what they earn and who don't pull their weight on a shift. It is demoralizing.

You can look up nurses pay on the internet,it is standard throughout the UK . The amount quoted is about right but don't forget Tax, NI & pension contributions are deducted from that, plus they pay for their registration every year. Also most study leave is unpaid.

More than demoralizing- just so unfair- disgusting even.

I am totally opposed to strikes in essential services. And yet, what choice do they have now? If they continue to be under-paid, exploited even for their 'vocation' - what will happen? Fewer and fewer will train, and those who od will go and work for Private Hospitals, or as so many now, abroad. They are welcome with open arms all over Europe, and beyond. Why should they stay in UK?

Two of my family have now left the NHS. One GP and a nurse.
This is a growing trend of qualified medical staff leaving and finding better paid and less stressful jobs. If the pay isn't addressed there will be even fewer staff than there are now.

Yes, there seems to be a growing trend of GPs leaving their NHS practices for private GP work. There is an increasing demand because it is so difficult to obtain an appointment with local NHS practices.
Can’t say I blame the doctors, although in all honesty they are not badly paid, it is the overload of work which is soul destroying.

GP's are self-employed, not on NHS payroll. They have to submit details of time spent and claim back. For example a GP practice has to buy Covid vaccinations up front and then claim back for the ones they use - if they don't administer them all then they are out of pocket.

Nurses are on the NHS payroll and should be paid a salary that reflects their qualifications and the huge amount of responsibility that comes with their job. I'm just not sure that striking is the way to go about it.
Perhaps us patients should demonstrate and lobby on their behalf as vigorously as we can?

You are right lixy Most GPs are private business and under contract to provide agreed services for the NHS. Their contracts are very complex, and basically they are given a sum each year to run their practice business, out of which, amongst other expenses the staff and GPs are paid.
This contract is negotiated with NHS every year, and the BMA committee which negotiates on their behalf is more powerful than nursing unions.

Absolutely support our wonderful nurses 100% !!

Calendargirl

My niece, in her late 40’s, has been a nurse all her working life. I have no idea what her salary is, but she doesn’t think she is on bad money, and she lives in quite an expensive area.

She is married with two teenage sons, if she were a single mother, perhaps she would feel differently, I don’t know.

My goddaughter is 39 and a senior staff nurse in teenage oncology Her basic in London is £35,000 !!! She’s single and has to commute

What about using the money from the side of Johnson's red Brexit bus to pay the nurses more? Surely it's available by now!

Public Service workers like Nurses, Police, Prison Officers and Teachers are never thought about until they threaten to string or strike! Yet these are the services we all depend upon every day and had no option of ‘furlough’ during COVID. They were just expected to keep going on the strength of a hand clap.Not sure hand claps help to pay mortgages and energy bills

Just cut the salaries if the managers and give to the nurses. The nurses really deserve it.

Gillypaula

Just cut the salaries if the managers and give to the nurses. The nurses really deserve it.

That will make a miniscule difference to nurses salaries, even if you had absolutely no managers at all, including no clinical managers. The answer is to provide more funding, not to pretend that one group of staff is responsible for the ills of the NHS.

I’m not really one who believes in strikes, but I will say this, there’s far too many chiefs and not enough Indians in the NHS and if they got rid of a lot of the unnecessary bosses who are paid a huge amount, then they should have enough money to pay the nurses what they deserve. I also think the NHS needs a complete overhaul, because I’m sure there’s a lot of wastage.

growstuff

I suspect a number of non-urgent ops will be cancelled, if there aren't enough nurses to provide aftercare.

I think it's very shortsighted to dismiss nurses' claims because the NHS's reorganisation plans rely on more nurses taking over roles currently done by doctors.

There are already highly trained nurse practitioners who take on work previously done by doctors. I think that they earn considerably more.
This strike was inevitable. If you expect a nurse to take a degree she will expect a graduate salary to compensate for the extended training, the cost of training and the cost of lost earnings. The old "apprenticeship" type scheme enabled people to earn whilst they learnt and did not saddle them with costs.
I know several nurses who graduated, did their first year in the NHS and then took on work in the private sector. Some do part-time private sector work to subsidise their NHS work, but you can hardly blame them for giving up on the NHS altogether.
I know that not all will agree with me, but I think that some higher level doctors are paid too much, and am convinced that many managers are overpaid too. The money going into the NHS should be more equably distributed.
The other aspect that is not often considered is that of having more staff on the wards who do the totally unskilled work. Surely if they took on more of the basic drudgery of some tasks it would leave free nurses (who are more skilled) to do more advanced work.
You see this in teaching with Teaching Assistants who take on the more mundane aspects in the classroom.

I 100% support them and all the previous comments ! I’m a retired nurse and my daughter is working now and did through Covid very stressful times but not only the wages need to be mentioned . It’s the brutal staff shortages as nurses quit retire early and leave the remaining chronically short staffed on shift making it doubly stressful and unsafe for patients . Critical mistakes can be made when overworked and tired . Better wages hopefully will stop the exodus from the profession and attract new nurses !!

No I don’t, was nursing until a few years ago, and have a family member still nursing, she’s managing fine, and not the lowest paid in the family, she doesn’t agree with a strike either..
it’s always been a caring profession, and people very vulnerable people will suffer and die as a result of this action… it’s very wrong especially when the vulnerable suffer yet again, those who have already suffered enough.
those who strike shouldn’t be in nursing! Let them go work elsewhere to get their high earnings.. Ridiculous!!!

Why can the money be found to pay agency staff inflated rates yet the pot's empty when it comes to proper and deserved pay rises? Makes no sense to me.

For goodness sake, there are some misguided remarks on this thread about management costs in the NHS. People clearly believe the media rather than checking the facts out.
www.nhsconfed.org/long-reads/nhs-overmanaged

Sadly many nurses are left with mental health issues, and are getting very little support...https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/mental-health/nursing-times-survey-reveals-state-of-nurses-mental-health-one-year-into-pandemic-31-03-2021/

Everyone has a right to a wage that reflects their training and expertise, but I personally do not care for the view that some professions are more important than others.

To me it does not seem right or fair for anyone to decide that a nurse is more important than a teacher, or a librarian less important than either or more important than a dustman.

Society needs all these people.

If nurses in the UK are as badly paid and as grossly overworked as they are here, then it is high time their pay and working conditions were revised.

Last year, when nurses were on strike in Denmark, only cancer treatment, cardiac dept. and other life-threatening conditions were treated as if there was no strike.

Any condition that could wait had to do so, both in hospital wards and in out-patient clinics, so I imagine you can expect much the same.

When I started working as an RMN in a hospital in the 80's there was 1 manager,when I left there 3 years later there were 5 managers only one clinically trained and one an ex detective. Then the 2 excellent and greatly needed day hospitals were closed down because they couldn't quantify the amount spent
on care. Then I had 30 clients as a CPN and was accountable for their care,a very responsible job. Then just before I left I was working doing assessments and unable to offer most patients a place in the MH service,and even if I could it was just for 6 weeks care!! So over 20 odd years I and my colleagues watched in dismay as the service was run down by stealth... I completely support the nurses but I fear that we may all be privatized soon. Where I live there are already 5 privately owned GP practices... It is so depressing when I think of how very dedicated and skilled all nurses are...

Cossy

Absolutely support our wonderful nurses 100% !!

Me too!

They need to get the wages of higher management and the agency staff to get it sorted. There's too much money being paid out on them that could go to the front line nursing staff, they work hard and deserve higher wages. They also need places to move the patients who are bed blocking, who are well enough to leave hospital but have nowhere to go for after care.
My doctor sent a referral letter for me to a see a consultant so now I'm worried how long it will be before I get the outpatients appointment as I know it will be those ones that will probably be affected.