NHS strikes

BBC Question Time: Nurse takes apart the government over NHS strikes

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/bbc-question-time-nurse-takes-apart-the-government-over-nhs-strikes/

‘The government needs to get real and address the situation.’

A nurse nails the government's refusal to negotiate in NHS strikes. BBC Question Time
A nurse nails the government’s refusal to negotiate in NHS strikes. BBC Question Time

A nurse has been praised after taking apart the Tory government’s response to ongoing NHS strikes, as she defended the strikes over poor pay and conditions.

Junior doctors and consultants chose to take joint industrial action for the first time in history this week, with more walkouts planned across October.

While Tory MP and panellist Kevin Hollinrake MP sought to defend the government’s refusal to negotiate over pay, the nurse exposed just how awful the government’s position is.

Joining in on the debate on what should be done differently to resolve the doctors pay dispute, the audience member said: “I’m a nurse, I voted to strike in the last ballot, when I’m balloted again, I will vote to strike again, and I’ll do that continually until pay talks open and they’re realistic.

“We are striking for pay, we are striking because we feel undervalued but we are also striking for patient safety, so when we’re accused of putting patients at risk, I say, patients are at risk every single day of the week.

“We’ve got 7 million people on waiting lists, we’ve got 140,000 vacancies, people are dying on waiting lists, people are dying in the back of ambulances, and this cannot go on.

″The government needs to get real and address the situation.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/bbc-question-time-nurse-takes-apart-the-government-over-nhs-strikes/

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Morning Star: Starmer’s NHS ‘vision’ dodges the three big issues: investment, pay, and privatisation

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Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos
Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/starmers-nhs-vision-dodges-three-big-issues-investment-pay-and-privatisation

EVERYONE who works in or depends on the NHS should be deeply concerned at Keir Starmer’s vision for the service.

Like so many cheerleaders for public-sector “reform” — which has invariably meant fragmentation and privatisation over the last 40 years — he accuses those calling for higher investment of avoiding the big issues. Yet that is what he is doing.

Starmer dodges questions on NHS pay, despite ongoing disputes involving doctors, nurses, paramedics, porters and domestics.

These disputes have prompted the biggest strikes in NHS history this year — but Labour is “not focused” on pay rises, he says.

That’s not good enough from the leader of a party founded to represent organised labour. Especially since we know from his previous comments that they regard inflation-proofed pay demands as “unaffordable.”

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Starmer says the NHS cannot cope with more years of Tory government, and he is right. But on a prospectus like this — no promises on investment, no promises on pay, blind faith in “technology” and continued exploitation by the private sector — its agony would continue on his watch, too.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/starmers-nhs-vision-dodges-three-big-issues-investment-pay-and-privatisation

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Starmer’s NHS ‘vision’ dodges the three big issues: investment, pay, and privatisation

Record number of junior doctors vote overwhelmingly for strike action

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/record-number-of-junior-doctors-vote-overwhelmingly-for-strike-action

Junior doctors wear scrubs and masks as they sit down in a silent protest outside Bristol Royal Infirmary on the second day of all-out strike action in April 2016

JUNIOR doctors in England have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action over pay, their union the British Medical Association (BMA) announced today.

Almost 37,000 members of the union took part in the ballots with 98 per cent saying they were in favour of striking, which the BMA said will be a three-day action.

The vote is the largest turnout for a ballot of doctors by the BMA, and a record number of junior doctors voted for strike action.

BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “The government has only itself to blame, standing by in silent indifference as our members are forced to take this difficult decision.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/record-number-of-junior-doctors-vote-overwhelmingly-for-strike-action

Continue ReadingRecord number of junior doctors vote overwhelmingly for strike action