Think yourself lucky that I was incommunicado during the budget.
The only point in Rishi Sunak's announcement that sticks in my memory is the generous 1% pay rise for nurses. Until inflation rises above 0.7%, this will mean that every nurse in the country will be able to afford one cup of Starbucks coffee per day without eating into their housekeeping. They should make the most of it while it lasts.
The opposition, of course, said that one percent was risible, but failed to quote any figure at all above it. The unions had asked - as a starting point - 12.5%, but Labour wouldn't even recommend 5% in the unlikely event that they might have to foot the bill.
In effect, nurses have had a pay-cut of only slightly less than the rest of the public sector, and this at a time when the government can pick trillions from the magic money tree and spend millions on secret procurement contracts under cover of Covid darkness.
Can you imagine the demoralising effect that this is going to have on the health sector who have been working under almost unendurable conditions for over a year to keep people alive and who are expected to keep it up for another year until we are all safe again? It is predicted that people will leave an already under-staffed service in their droves once things get back to what we used to call 'normal'.
Percentage across the board pay rises are never a good idea. The lower paid grades should get more. Nurses are not unique in their position of low pay, they have good employment terms and conditions, annual increments and good pensions and their pay scales against other workers do.not look that bad. At the end of the day they, one assumes, go.into nursing with their eyes open, nobody is holding a stick at them. A better deal would be free nurse training.
ReplyDeleteCan you think of another profession in which you are morally obliged to work 14 hour shifts for 8 hours of basic pay and also be expected to fund your own training for advancement? The reason I called this post A vocation is because everyone knows that nurses go into it with their eyes open but nobody knows why, and wouldn't do the job themselves for twice the money. Collectively, we are a bunch of ingrates.
DeleteYes interesting. The basic shift pattern here is 12 hours on and 12 hours off. Not nice by any stretch of the imagination but not as bad as 8 hours and then working 14 that you describe with no overtime.
DeleteMy grand daughter is a nurse, so I just go by what she tells me. She is in London and receives a little more because of that, but I know what a struggle it is for her. The main point of this post is that Boris has fallen far short of his initial promise to reward nurses for what they are going through right now, not least saving his own life. When she is about to finish a shift and the baby she is caring for suffers a set-back which could be fatal if she goes home and hands over to the relief nurse, what do you think she is going to do? She has to tell parents that their baby has died on a regular basis, and she has to pay for her own insurance policy to defend herself if the parents sue her for negligence for the death.
DeleteThis is the last time I am going to argue with you on this point. Nurses do not get enough money to even live a normal life without personal sacrifice, let alone put up with things which we would not tolerate for three, four times as much pay.
I note that further down the comments you are happy to acknowledge that 12 hours on and 12 hours off is supported by most nurses and that 12 hours on and off is the regular shift pattern. I did not make the figures up, I have inside knowledge too and it was based on fact. If a nurse had to work 14 hours instead of the 8 hour shift she was expecting then I recommend she lodges a complaint with her superiors that this is inhumane. I cannot believe that nobody turned up for work in the 6 hours extra that she did to cover the sick child. I did not disagree with you about pay rises at all and also suggested free training would be better. Perhaps you should re-read my original comment before flying off the handle at me.
DeleteThis from someone who tells others off for the indulgence of eating a baked potato over a slice of bread.
DeleteFar from it.
DeleteI got a proper answer at least.
DeleteMy granddaughter does not do 12 on 12 off shifts. You do not know everything, despite your slavish research.
DeleteI never said she did. I said this was the pattern for most, as did John.
DeleteI continue to be surprised at vast differences in nursing pay structures. US pay structures also account for local cost of living when compensating employees. Currently 800 nurses at St. Vincent's Hospital, Worcester, MA are considering a strike. A key issue is the contract says each nurse is assigned 4 patients and the hospital is assigning 5. Several senators are supporting the nurses. I've known Brits to come to the US work here for a year or two, bankroll/invest earnings, return to Britain and buy a property. If there is a will, there is a way...
ReplyDeleteThe microcosm of this is that we have Filipino nurses doing exactly the same thing here. The difference is the standard of care between countries and the way the care is set up in the first place. Ours is public, and set up by a Labour government after WW2. The USA does not even allow Obama to set up a humane service for the underprivileged. It is all private isn't it?
DeleteBeveridge was a Liberal and Willink a Tory. They drew up the foundations for the NHS during the wartime coalition. It was announced by Attlee but would have been announced by Churchill if the Tories had won the election after the war. When it was going through Parliament Labour objected to more points than anyone else. Just for the record.
DeleteAbout 10-15% do not have insurance in America. The rest has private insurance or a combination of private and public/Federal Medicare. Those without insurance generally get free healthcare (or pay a fee based on their income) at the hospitals. Most hospitals have a fund set aside to support the needs of the uninsured.
DeleteOh. That' sounds better than I thought.
DeleteTrouble is to get eligible for that charity care, one has to get the original HUGE bills & then fill out lots of paperwork & never know what is covered by the donations & what is not...
DeleteSometimes large medical debt ($250,000+) can be discharged in bankruptcy & sometimes not...assuming one has the few thousand $$ to pay the lawyers to file bankruptcy in the first place!! So glad when I turned 65 & got Medicare & also Medicare Advantage plans...KMC, Oregon, USA.
Well said Tom. Tights excepteed you always talk a lot of sense!
ReplyDeleteTights are very unhealthy, Weave. That's my story and I am sticking to it.
DeleteI’m torn on this one. Nurses do the most amazing job and should be rewarded for that but, today the NHS chiefs have told Rishi Sunak they will have to cut patient care unless he finds £8 billion for extra Covid costs plus a pay rise .... just where is all this money coming from ? Millions in all areas need help so it needs to be shared out. I don’t know what the answer is ? XXXX
ReplyDeleteI think Avus has the obvious answer. They could not find the money during the 10 years of austerity leading up to the pandemic, but they could set aside billions for a destructive length of motorway which knocks about 20 minutes off a journey North.
DeleteI have never known a 14 hour nhs shift
ReplyDeleteMost are 12 hours on and 12 off
There are rules clearly drawn about this
There is much research to support that most nurses want 12 hours shifts so that they can have four days off a week
Yes, I believe you about the 12 on, 12 off support. All I am saying is that the Neo-Natal nurse I am in contact with thinks she is getting off lightly if she does not have a 14 hour shift at her London hospital. After one of these shifts she has about two hours to get home and eat if she wants 8 hours of sleep.
DeleteIn my day (I was a student nurse in the 60´s) you did your training in the hospital where you worked part-time and studied part-time, You received a small wage and board and lodging. Once qualified of course you received a better wage. I think this was a far better system than the current one.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an apprenticeship. Did you have to pay to qualify?
DeleteNo, but there was an annual registration fee. I think "on the job" training is ideal for nursing, some things can´t be learnt from books and there are always specialization courses you can do after. No student debt, either!
DeleteWhy are our respective legislative bodies such horses' asses, I wonder.
ReplyDeleteThey are dealing with a Leviathan when dealing with the healthcare system.
DeleteThe unwanted vanity project of HS2 has billions allocated to it. Surely it would be better to cancel the damned thing and give a minute fraction of that vast sum to nurses and other deserving professions.
ReplyDeleteThey could even allocate a few billions to mending our roads, which in Kent are falling apart. The back roads and lanes are becoming farm tracks and our overused main roads are breaking up with the continuous pounding of 40 tonne lorries.
Their excuse would be that projects like HS2 create jobs. I don't believe them. They create profit, not jobs.
DeleteDon't these things get sorted by a Pay Review Body to some sort of mutual agreement?
ReplyDeleteI believe the pay review body would think it a waste of time to ask organisations how much money they need as they already know what the answer would be - something to negotiate downwards, of course. If they do consult, it is with management, not the nurses, and the notion of 'mutual agreement' seems unrealistic.
DeleteWhat a clusterf*ck this situation is!
ReplyDeleteIt's obscene, spineless and heartless.
ReplyDelete