George Cross for the NHS.

[RealhousewifeofStoke]

Love it
Wonderful recognition of what the frontline staff have endured and continue to deal with throughout the pandemic

It is all well and good but they need a pay rise and adequate funding. It is like the clapping that went on for weeks.

It is pretty meaningless without funding.

There’s nothing wrong per se with a medal or clapping - I heard mixed views from my health care friends. However in addition vote or campaign for:

Better pay, more recruitment so that hours are reasonable.

Small things like Free/subsided staff parking, coffee machines that are maintained, places to relax close enough to the ward that the whole break is not lost getting there - recruitment hopefully meaning time to actually take the break.

Looking at strategies that a patient needing planned surgery goes ahead even though an emergency comes and the surgeon/nurse/secretary don’t have to call and say it has postponed. (Saw on Hospital on BBC and it was heartbreaking for staff and patients. Might be separate units, but ultimately really staffed operating theatres and beds on wards after.

Fund MH for all patients including NHS staff properly- would ease A&E.

Funding for social care so that patients can be safely discharged to an appropriate place (with the help and care they need.)

Remembering that cutting paperwork and people by calling it red tape is not always the answer and that staff they patients don’t physically see can still be vital. This includes managersf and clerical staff, those analysing samples and pharmacy.

Medals are a nonsense they mean nothing.

They also hark back to imperialist overlord crap!

Being former nhs myself I'm fairly certain they would much rather have:

1 Decent actual living wage

2 Enough resources to do their job

3 The genuine respect of the govt not lip service

4 The actual recognition by the govt of all they do and what an essential service they perform

5 an assurance that there will no longer be bean counters making decisions about how healthcare is run but instead a guarantee it won't be privatised and that it will be run by people who actually know what the fuck they're doing and don't have a dodgy agenda!

...but I'm not holding my breath!

This has been awarded personally by The Queen, not by the government.

And?

She has the ear of the PM, she has certain limited powers which she never exercises.

If she genuinely cared she could bring pressure to bear on Johnson to greatly improve matters for the nhs and the country as a whole.

She does nothing!

Why? Because she doesn't really care beyond avoiding the monarchy being abolished. She and her family will never need to use the nhs.

My first thought was that it’s a cheaper alternative to funding it properly, especially since it is likely to have another rough winter ahead

Exactly

Don’t waste any energy trying to understand something that has no impact on you.

This impacts EVERYONE in the Uk who works for or accesses the nhs

the pay isn't actually that bad.

@Treehaus would you do these jobs for that pay? HAVE you?

So over a year we can all have it for 20 seconds each?

It's an insult.

@CrouchEndTiger12

And you have consultants crying over 6 figure salaries in the papers as it isn't as much as lawyers.

Don't like your job GET OUT OF IT

Oh fuck off! lots of them have left and still are leaving, and you should be bloody scared because one day you're going to need them and they wont be there. But carry on slagging them off eh! You haven't got a clue.

Yes thanks @Graphista, I was a HCA after sixth form and then a bank HCA alongside my nursing degree. I don't think being on £31k after what is usually about 18 months as a band 5 is that bad in a sector there will always be job security. I did a further qualification and work in an administrative type role now for less money than I would have been on if I'd have stayed on the career trajectory, which is fair enough. I'm not saying a pay rise wouldn't be nice, but just that there are many things that would be of more benefit to morale, retention and working conditions other than a few extra £ a month.

Very scummy to announce this on the 'freedom day' that will lead to vastly more work for those poor NHS staff on Covid wards/respiratory wards/ICU.

But we know they were scum, and they just keep on proving it.

Well said Graphista.

‘But we know they were scum, and they just keep on proving it.’

Who?

@PurpleWh1teGreen

So over a year we can all have it for 20 seconds each?

The miserable twats will be forgoing their hold. You might get 25 seconds if you’re lucky

@RealhousewifeofStoke

Love it Wonderful recognition of what the frontline staff have endured and continue to deal with throughout the pandemic

I guess you don't work for the NHS? It's meaningless like the clap and the NHS badge that ministers wear while cutting funding year on year.

How much of a pay rise do we think NHS staff should get to go with the GM?

I’ll start with 5% - does anyone have a rough idea how much that would cost?

‘I guess you don't work for the NHS?’

You guessed wrong

HMQ specifically said the GC is awarded to all staff (past and present), in all disciplines, in all UK nations. It’s not only for frontline staff and not only for Covid.

I’m sure many are very deserving but like in every profession there are those who are not. And there are NHS trusts who have literally had to plead guilty to to criminal charges over deaths of babies. I can’t understand how you can lump such a vast work force - past and present - many who are amazing and some who deserve to go to jail and everyone in between - and collectively award them a George cross surely that makes it completely meaningless.

It’s hardly meaningless when it’s only the third time it’s ever been awarded collectively. I’m sure not every Maltese citizen was courageous and there were wrong uns in the RUC. It’s rare enough to be pretty special.

Meaningless to those who are complicit in the needless deaths of babies. Yes. Meaningless to the middle managers who’ve been working from home since last year probably.

But for those of us who risked our health every day in the most horrendous circumstances imaginable, for those who still have pressure damage to their skin from PPE, to those who were forced to hold the phones to the ears of the dying so their loved ones could say goodbye, to those who have sacrificed their long term health to long covid, to those whose children and families suffered from an exhausted and distant mum or dad coming through the door after another 15 hour shift to cover for the colleagues too sick to work, to those in ICU who quickly realised that steroids and anti coagulants would save lives, to those who have administered millions of vaccines not quite so meaningless.

20,000 private nurses were transferred to the NHS during Covid. We all went to the frontline predominantly ITU. Once again there is no recognition of our contribution. We continue to work to clear the backlog of waiting lists to support the NHS

Yup. That invisible medal that no one will see will feed us and and pay for our therapy.

#soblessed

My trust bought each ward a small box of pg tips to share.

I feel really valued

But for those of us who risked our health every day in the most horrendous circumstances imaginable, for those who still have pressure damage to their skin from PPE, to those who were forced to hold the phones to the ears of the dying so their loved ones could say goodbye, to those who have sacrificed their long term health to long covid, to those whose children and families suffered from an exhausted and distant mum or dad coming through the door after another 15 hour shift to cover for the colleagues too sick to work, to those in ICU who quickly realised that steroids and anti coagulants would save lives, to those who have administered millions of vaccines not quite so meaningless.

Well I'm really glad it means so much to to you op. But no need to be quite so bloody rude to me when I state that I'm struggling to understand why itwould mean anything to anyone

I think it's a nice gesture from The Queen, she's pretty powerless to do anything that would really make a difference to the NHS like better funding, more staff and fairer wages and conditions.

Does worry me though that the government will hide behind it and it'll be another excuse for those things to continue, that shouldn't take away from the gesture, but it will I fear.

Also have some people stopped to think why the 'miserable bastards' are reacting negatively? Maybe they're burned out, fed up and ready to quit and a medal from the Queen (while I personally think it's a nice gesture) isn't going to fix any of that. I can totally empathise with that pov.

@RealhousewifeofStoke

‘I guess you don't work for the NHS?’

You guessed wrong

Wow. I didn't think anyone who worked for the NHS would be taken in by this meaningless gesture. Guess there is always one who is easy to please......

Thing is it’s not meaningless, it’s invested to the hilt with meaning but that’s all it is.

Everyone working on the front line in the NHS deserves a substantial financial reward for everything they’ve done and been through. It would be nice if someone told us where Captain Tom’s millions have gone.

@Treehaus 31k doesn't go that far these days - and Mp certainly wouldn't work for that much! It might be ok pay for a single person but it's not enough to raise a family on without help - which even this govt recognises.

A single mum with 2 dc earning that is eligible for uc.

I also said in my post that the nhs needs other funding too.

And the money IS there when the govt wants it to be! It's there for mps expenses, for bungs to cronies, for redecoration, for tax breaks to the already wealthy, for vanity projects...

Chris grayling alone has cost the country almost 3 BILLION in COCK UPS alone! Imagine how useful that would be for the nhs?

@C130 thank you

Those saying it's not meaningless please tell the rest of us exactly what it does mean beyond "recognition" which is in itself meaningless if not backed up by genuine support?

Op your post at 1940 is presumptuous is insulting and incorrect.

My Facebook feed today is FILLED With those friends and family I have still working in the nhs sharing and posting saying this move IS insulting, meaningless lip service.

What they need is :

PPE
Ventilators
Meds
Enough staff

And yes

A pay rise! There have been costs incurred to staff as a result of how they need to operate in the pandemic and NOBODY official has even mentioned that as far as I'm aware

@Iquitit she has more power than people think - she simply chooses not to use it for anyone's benefit but her and her family

It would be nice if someone told us where Captain Tom’s millions have gone

I dread to think