O/T:- The NHS strike - for or against?

[magpie_mania]

I think in the main they have, but those who have talked about food banks etc have done more harm than good.

Sadly comments like that tend to get newspaper headlines.

While they continue to make them, the newspapers will continue to print them.

Sorry, but they only have themselves to blame for that.

[Elite_Pie]

While they continue to make them, the newspapers will continue to print them.

Sorry, but they only have themselves to blame for that.

Agreed. It's a bit sad that sensationalist headlines (from whatever side) get the attention they do.

[applepie2]

Thanks for bumping this Bohinen, I didn't provide any real real life examples of the strain they are under. So here we go:

My youngest daughter paid £9,000 per year to qualify as a nurse on a 3 year uni course. Then Covid happened, so she had to do online facetime lectures. She didn't feel she was learning a lot, so she signed up for NHS Professionals as an HCA. She worked shifts on Covid wards and caught the virus. She was living with us at the time, and me and my wife also tested positive. She also did unpaid ward placements (part of her uni course), where she really felt she learned. One of them was on an Oncology ward which was the hardest of all, but when she qualified that's where she applied to work. She got the job, but after 3 months on the ward she found herself in charge because the two senior nurses had phoned in sick. She (as a complete novice) was in charge of an understaffed ward with patients placed on end of life care. Her official hours were 12.5, but she ended up working a 14 hour night shift until they found other staff. Even after that she couldn't sleep when she finally got home because she was worrying if she'd missed something. It came close to ending her nursing career, but my wife (an ex-nurse) talked her around. She joined the strike, but her protest was far more about understaffing than pay.

This isn't an isolated case, it's becoming increasingly more common. That's why I'm passionate about this, and it's why I hate it becoming derailed by talk of nurses needing food banks. My daughter doesn't need a food bank, all she wants is to be able to do her job properly.

My wife worked for the NHS until shortly before Covid. I just read out your post, and she completely agreed with you. The thing about pay is that (a) poor pay makes it harder to recruit staff and (b) the Trusts are forced to employ and pay expensive Agency staff. So pay is part of the mix, but striking nurses are fighting for the Health Service. My fear is that the NHS is close to collapse, and then this useless Government will have the excuse to bring in a US style system making obscene profits for US companies. The big winners will be Insurers, and the losers will be anyone not employed by big business, because many of us poor workers and pensioners will not get our insurance premiums paid by our employers. And it will be insurance companies who will decide on what care and treatment they allow us to have.

[Elite_Pie]

"Pressure on the NHS is "intolerable and unsustainable", according to the British Medical Association (BMA) which represents doctors. Chair of the BMA council, Professor Phil Banfield, has called on the government to "step up and take immediate action" to solve the crisis".

"According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) - which monitors standards of care in UK A&E departments - the NHS is facing the worst winter for A&E waits on record and some A&E departments are in a "complete state of crisis". Dr Ian Higginson, the college's vice-president, said he was in "no doubt" there was a risk to patients".

"The NHS is likely to remain on a “crisis footing” with rising waiting lists as extra funding outlined in Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement was, in real-terms, less than a decade ago, analysis has found".

“What we’re seeing now in terms of these long waits is being associated with increased mortality, and we think somewhere between 300-500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week. We need to actually get a grip of this".

Just a few quotes from either mainstream media or respected medical bodies, nothing from extreme sources. And we have a government that is doing nothing at all to tackle the problems, it's just letting people die before their time.

Disgraceful and immoral.

[magpie_mania]

"Pressure on the NHS is "intolerable and unsustainable", according to the British Medical Association (BMA) which represents doctors. Chair of the BMA council, Professor Phil Banfield, has called on the government to "step up and take immediate action" to solve the crisis".

"According to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) - which monitors standards of care in UK A&E departments - the NHS is facing the worst winter for A&E waits on record and some A&E departments are in a "complete state of crisis". Dr Ian Higginson, the college's vice-president, said he was in "no doubt" there was a risk to patients".

"The NHS is likely to remain on a “crisis footing” with rising waiting lists as extra funding outlined in Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement was, in real-terms, less than a decade ago, analysis has found".

“What we’re seeing now in terms of these long waits is being associated with increased mortality, and we think somewhere between 300-500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week. We need to actually get a grip of this".

Just a few quotes from either mainstream media or respected medical bodies, nothing from extreme sources. And we have a government that is doing nothing at all to tackle the problems, it's just letting people die before their time.

Disgraceful and immoral.

Not sure the Govt are doing nothing, but certainly they are falling way short.

Is this going to be a way to introduce more privatisation?

While it won't affect the number of people on waiting lists, 'going private ' means that some can be treated much more quickly (by the same consultant etc) while others stay on the waiting list for even longer.

[GranthamPie]

[I]And we have a government that is doing nothing at all to tackle the problems, it's just letting people die before their time.

Disgraceful and immoral.

Pretty much part of the DNA of the Conservative Party… the covid crisis was a small example of “letting the bodies pile high”.

These fcukers are subhuman.

We all know where this is going… it’s a deliberate policy of underfunding and downgrading of the NHS to justify (to the fed up and dying public) that there really is no choice but to open the doors to those “wunnerful American cousins” of ours to slice and dice the NHS into profitable bits.

Get ready for those American BUPA style TV Adverts, offering salvation to the desperate whilst the poor die.

[Elite_Pie]

Not sure the Govt are doing nothing, but certainly they are falling way short.

This is what they are doing:

"The health service will receive an extra £3.3 billion in each of the next two years, while £4.7 billion will go into social care, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his autumn statement".

It sounds big numbers, but this is the reality:

"The annual increase for the next two years is 1.2% in real terms “which is below the average” seen in the decade preceding the pandemic (2%), as well as the historical average of around 3.8%"

It's peanuts, and it's allowing the situation to deteriorate. That's why thousands of NHS staff have had enough.

[magpie_mania]

This is what they are doing:

"The health service will receive an extra £3.3 billion in each of the next two years, while £4.7 billion will go into social care, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his autumn statement".

It sounds big numbers, but this is the reality:

"The annual increase for the next two years is 1.2% in real terms “which is below the average” seen in the decade preceding the pandemic (2%), as well as the historical average of around 3.8%"

It's peanuts, and it's allowing the situation to deteriorate. That's why thousands of NHS staff have had enough.

Do you have an opinion on consultants etc working privately?

A friend of mine had been waiting for months for an important operation. Her daughter then needed the same operation - she could get it privately and so it was done within a month - by the same consultant.

[Elite_Pie]

Do you have an opinion on consultants etc working privately?

As long as they fulfil their NHS duties I suppose it's up to them.

[OP67]

This is what they are doing:

"The health service will receive an extra £3.3 billion in each of the next two years, while £4.7 billion will go into social care, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his autumn statement".

It sounds big numbers, but this is the reality:

"The annual increase for the next two years is 1.2% in real terms “which is below the average” seen in the decade preceding the pandemic (2%), as well as the historical average of around 3.8%"

It's peanuts, and it's allowing the situation to deteriorate. That's why thousands of NHS staff have had enough.

So what do you think should be done about it??? Pretty much shows that throwing endless cash at it isn't going to sort it out. The NHS is no longer and hasn't been for a long long time been sustainable in it's current format.

Labour just use it for political points scoring while offering zero ideas!!