1% disgrace.
This is what a dear friend of mine thinks about the government's pay offer to NHS staff.Yesterday, the final blow was dealt. A proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff, whilst others, outside the NHS, are proposing to vote themselves increases above 1%. This is an absolute disgrace. For the past ten years, pay and conditions in the NHS have been ransacked. Pay frozen, public pensions attacked. Remember the coalition government, who managed to convince the public that NHS staff all had gold plated pensions? Who stood up to oppose those changes and support the NHS ? Who has stood up and challenged the huge management costs in the NHS ? Layers and layers of management posts, directors, non executive directors, trust chairmen, plus all the others in every NHS hospital. Some junior managers, with few or no qualifications, no direct contact with patients but many paid the same or more than a Ward or ITU Sister with professional degrees. What has happened over the past year? The doctors, nurses, health care assistants, frontline admin staff, porters and cleaners, left to basically run the hospitals, whilst most of the management have worked from home. Imagine the nursing staff, having to deal with several deaths per shift, being the last person to hold someone's relatives hand as they die? The sheer stress each hour of each 12 or 13 hour shift, worked with no breaks. Exhausted, emotionally and physically. Who stood up and challenged the 44.000 nursing vacancies? Well I can hold my hand up and say that I have, especially in the last ten years of my 47 year career as a nurse. I retired 2 years ago, fed up with no one listening to us, targets above patient care, plus many many other issues. The time has come to stand up and demand a complete overhaul of the structures in our NHS. Bring back the outsourced staff, porters and cleaners in house, so that their pay and conditions can be improved. Yes the NHS requires managers but not in the numbers, we currently have. Savings made can be redirected to frontline staff. Who is actually going to stand up and challenge all of the above? A golden opportunity for the Labour Party and others to step up to the plate.
Vanessa Smith ● 1146d3 Comments