Nurses striking

[Avenged7Fold]

Sorry to derail the thread but I have a question about nurses. I have a friend who works at the hospital and she’s made it sound like she’s a nurse but I searched the register and she’s not on there. Is this possible or is she more likely to be a healthcare assistant or something along those lines? Sorry again for barging in

I’ve known people who do that, HCAs who say they are nurses. Maybe she’s an apprentice on the way to qualifying. Whatever, she’s probably doing a great job

 

[Yel]

And this mainly goes into the pockets of "investors", who managed to buy a house at the right price and then remortgaged it to buy some buy to let's.

The UK now spends more on housing benefit than on most government departments
High private rents and stagnant wages mean housing benefit now costs £23.4bn a year.

The UK now spends more on housing benefit than on most government departments

High private rents and stagnant wages mean housing benefit now costs £23.4bn a year.

www.newstatesman.com

 

[cee-bee]

the nazis have arrived everyone

I mean this thread really does have it all

Albanian migrants causing nurses to be paid poorly, I’ve heard it all now

 

[Piff paff puff]

Sooooo NHS medics sent to the earth quake disaster. Firstly I'm happy they're getting help that isn't my issue.
Do we have a shortage of medics here or are they lying?

 

[Merpedy]

I’m absolutely over this “xyZ isn’t comparable to nursing”
Plenty of degree educated people work in supermarkets etc because they need a job quickly when they graduate and in some areas the jobs for specific skills are simply not there
Can we not moan now about shitty customers, understaffing and the crap wages we have no choice but to just deal with because nurses have it worse?
Probs me being picky but I cannot stand hearing the phrase low skilled workers, it feels degrading

RE the whole degree thing:
Chances are that the people without degrees struggle to change their career paths or find 'better' jobs as a lot of doors are closed to them. Unless they're in a line of work that performs some service society deems vital enough (even if in reality it is vital) it seems to me that they don't even really have the option to stage an effective strike action most of the time to get better working conditions/wages

 

[Eltonjohnsflorist]

I can’t think of any profession where you train for free. What professions do that?

I am a professional, and I wouldn’t work anywhere that didn’t pay my professional fee/ subscription. It’s only ever been an issue in one place, a university, and I turned down the job because of it

I don't understand why people are not up in arms or on the street protesting about what is happening to our NHS.
it's being deliberately destroyed because the governments want the UK to be the same as the USA. Most of it has already been sold and or privatised, this isn't new it's on its last legs

PM won't even negotiate because they (governments) want the strikes to happen because they want the public to turn against the strikers. it's going to be too late to do anything soon.

Surely though, the next pay review board will have to consider inflation in their recommendation… they suggested a inflationary pay increase in February 22, what else can they do in February 23?

 

[struggs123]

However they do have to suffer with the disruption.

They do, but similarly sadly also suffering with poor care and long wait times every day even out of strike dates, it sad all round.

 

[popb1tch]

THIS!! All retail workers, cleaners, bin men etc who also worked through the pandemic, exposing themselves being abused by the public they also deserve pay rises but because they aren’t civil servants they are seen as a lessor citizen.

Everyone deserves a pay rise but we are in a recession, after a pandemic with world war three possibly on the card. Everyone is in the shit with those in power having no idea while they drink £100 bottles of wine at lunch.

I want to see all of those groups unionised and mass strikes…all of those groups deserve far better pay and they should get it too

The way we dealt with the pandemic as a country did not help matters….we didn’t have to shut the whole country down for 2 years but we did…primarily to keep wealthy pensioners from dying one whole year early

 

[Gloria Rostron]

Parking at hospitals should be free for everyone, or at least a nominal payment. It's extortionate.
We don't have catering at my workplace I just take my own food

I disagree about parking being free for everyone. I think that outpatients could have free parking but not visitors otherwise it becomes a freeforall. Every hospital I have seen has a bus stop on site and a taxi drop off point.

If you are working through the night, then there should be somewhere to get food. Even takeaways close at around 2am.

 

[Gloria Rostron]

improve the conditions which in turn improves both recruitment AND retention.

So, what are we looking at here? Let's say remove the fee for annual registration to practice nursing. Provide car parking spaces for employees, especially at unsociable hours when buses aren't running. Improve the staff rooms and ensure better catering facilities (Pru Leith was looking in to this last year). Make the shifts patterns more stable and predictable.

These are things that could be achieved and it sounds as though a break down in communication between nurses and NHS governors is preventing this. That or the governors just don't care.

 

[Polythene Pam]

They're really not. The EU average nurse wage is £31600. That's lower than UK nurse wage wage. In Norway nurses only make a few thousand more but the cost of living is nearly double. When misinformation like this is pedalled it makes it hard to trust them.
The union's are as full as much crap as the government.
+ Nurses have a super generous pension. Everyone is struggling at the moment, nurses still have a pretty good deal. Of course some are finding it tough, like millions of others. But taxing others who are struggling just as much (probably more) or loading up on debt for people to pay in the future is not good either. Nurses need a bit of balance and look outside of their own bubble and the shite that unions pedal to justify their existence.

Nurses salaries: How do other countries in Europe compare on wages?

Historic strikes by nurses in the UK's NHS over pay and working conditions mirror the struggle of many health workers in other European countries.

www.euronews.com

They're really not. The EU average nurse wage is £31600. That's lower than UK nurse wage wage. In Norway nurses only make a few thousand more but the cost of living is nearly double. When misinformation like this is pedalled it makes it hard to trust them.
The union's are as full as much crap as the government.
+ Nurses have a super generous pension. Everyone is struggling at the moment, nurses still have a pretty good deal. Of course some are finding it tough, like millions of others. But taxing others who are struggling just as much (probably more) or loading up on debt for people to pay in the future is not good either. Nurses need a bit of balance and look outside of their own bubble and the shite that unions pedal to justify their existence.

Like everything it's a bit more nuanced but this is interesting... in terms of purchasing power parity we're in the middle

UK nursing strikes: How do other countries in Europe compare on wages?

Historic strikes by nurses in the UK's NHS over pay and work conditions are mirroring the struggle of many health workers in other European countries.

www.euronews.com

.

 

[popb1tch]

Any professional body of people can withdraw their labour for any reason they like

Clinicians are already doing this by proxy in leaving in their droves to work in Aldi or retire or call in sick

This strike is just a glimpse of the future in which labour continues to be withdrawn on a mass basis

 

[karmadrama]

Sorry to derail the thread but I have a question about nurses. I have a friend who works at the hospital and she’s made it sound like she’s a nurse but I searched the register and she’s not on there. Is this possible or is she more likely to be a healthcare assistant or something along those lines? Sorry again for barging in

 

[emm]

I agree that you need a certain amount of maths knowledge such as for medications etc....but I'm getting ready to sit an exam full of algebra and stuff its ridiculous. I'd gotten places at 4/4 of the unis I applied for but I couldn't get onto any of them as they absolutely would not take me without that C/4/level 2 in maths.

What IELTS (the exam they have to pass to practise here) is not maths at all, it is written exams, reading exams, totally irrevelevent to anything scientific or practical. These are examples: https://www.ielts.org/for-test-takers/sample-test-questions

Personally I know native English speakers who failed the reading and writing parts of the exam

 

[no-no]

Does the fact that some people abuse a system mean that no one deserves a pay rise though?
Sure things like that could be managed better, perhaps that could be part of the negotiation.

In real terms, the band 5 starting salary increased by 6.7% between 2017/18 and 2020/21. But since 2010/11, it has fallen by a total of 3.2%

Nurse pay up over the past few years but down on 2010 – Full Fact

Matt Hancock claimed nurse salaries had risen significantly in recent years. These increases don’t counterbalance falls in real terms pay over the past decade.

fullfact.org

Do you all really think that's OK?! I'm honestly baffled

Just sharing my experience of people using “exceptional circumstances” to go off sick excessively. Any pay rise has to factor in the whole compensation package, there’d be more scope if these agendas were reformed but I doubt the unions would entertain negotiating on those at any point.

 

[JoeBloggs]

Yes that's what I mean although not very clearly. If people get their backs up as they earn less and don't support the strikes and pay rises then realistically it doesn't really make a difference.

However they do have to suffer with the disruption.

 

[instasham13]

I thought a doctors salary was much higher too? These 2 posts being an example. I don't know anything about levels of doctor though and consultant might be top dog hence why the salary is high.

Oh I agree definitely, I was a nurse but left fairly recently, I always felt a bit aggrieved by it. But that's why they do it because they feel they can, but the mass exodus hopefully demonstrates to the gov that we won't tolerate it any more, pay a fair wage or people will continue to leave.

Can I ask what you do now if you left nursing?

 

[ShadesMint]

Don't know if anyone read a long read article in The Guardian today from the pov of a health care assistant but it is pretty terrifying

What is the title of the article please? I wonder if it's available online.

 

[Eltonjohnsflorist]

Isn’t that contradictory, if we don’t do what they want they’ll leave and there’ll be no nurses or paramedics. Yet according to the comments I’ve seen there’s already no nurses or paramedics, so what difference does it make?

No it’s not. Nurses are already leaving. Most of the ones who have stayed are, as you are aware, on strike. That means they are withholding their Labour.
Not leaving. Staying but not working.

So you have
- shortage of new nurses training
- nurses leaving the profession in record numbers
- nurses who are still employed refusing to work.

 

[whoareyouu]

Exactly they've been very open about the fact that striking is very much a last resort

I get this. I just don’t know what the answer is. They deserve the money but I can’t see the government budging on it sadly.

I hope I’m wrong!