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

‘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’

Struggling to understand? Or just another opportunity to make a passive aggressive head tilting ‘but I’m so confused’ dig at the NHS ?

‘Op your post at 1940 is presumptuous is insulting and incorrect’

To whom? Every single one of those experiences is based on my or my colleagues experiences. All of whom are pleased that the recognition the NHS received today was in some way due to the role we’ve played. An acknowledgement of what has gone before and what lies ahead. I’m not sure why you find that insulting.

Struggling to understand? Or just another opportunity to make a passive aggressive head tilting ‘but I’m so confused’ dig at the NHS ?

Jesus op - if anyone is being PA it's you!!! I think the NHS is absolutely wonderful and I would never EVER make a dig at it! I genuinely don't understand why people who do such stressful, demanding and underpaid jobs would be impressed by this award 🤷‍♀️. Head tilting? More like head shaking at your inane comments.

@Medievalist

Struggling to understand? Or just another opportunity to make a passive aggressive head tilting ‘but I’m so confused’ dig at the NHS ?

Jesus op - if anyone is being PA it's you!!! I think the NHS is absolutely wonderful and I would never EVER make a dig at it! I genuinely don't understand why people who do such stressful, demanding and underpaid jobs would be impressed by this award 🤷‍♀️. Head tilting? More like head shaking at your inane comments.

And there you go again

It's insulting to those nhs workers who DON'T consider this move in any way meaningful.

Who've also been through all you've said and worse and received no support, no recognition, indeed in many cases been told by management to basically "just suck it up! This is the job!"

What exactly do you think it means? In real terms?

Incorrect because not everyone feels the way you do.

Jesus op - if anyone is being PA it's you!!!

Agreed

‘What exactly do you think it means? In real terms? ‘
It means nothing more than a gesture of support from a 90 odd year old woman who appreciates what some of us have done.

‘Incorrect because not everyone feels the way you do’

Spoken as someone who had jumped on a perfectly innocuous thread to tell me I’m incorrect because not everybody feels the way I do. There is an option NOT to trawl through MN yo find threads to disagree with

It’s bullshit. Clapping, turning things blue, a theoretical medal that none of us even get a sticker for mean NOTHING. Pay us properly. Fund our services properly so we don’t all feel like we’re constantly letting people down. Don’t give contracts for vital equipment and PPE to Tory donors with zero experience and qualifications.

All of these meaningless gestures are just smoke and mirrors so the government can avoid actually doing anything.

It's not a perfectly innocuous thread though is it op? You seem to be revelling in being deliberately goady.

Perhaps you are indeed a frontline NHS staff member and your particular group of colleagues do indeed think it's wonderful that their efforts have been recognised in this totally meaningless way. And that the age of the person making the award somehow makes this gesture even more meaningful to them.

We have an ICU nurse staying with us at the moment and I can assure you the award means nothing to her. But she would appreciate better working conditions and pay.

@TheSockMonster

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.

I think there is real public will to fund it better at the moment, even if that means raising taxes. Although a properly funded NHS and social care sector should also save a lot of money in the long term.

Totally agree with all of this. Even before Covid, the NHS was stretched to beyond capacity which meant diagnoses were missed and patients were sent home too soon; more costly to rectify than prevent.

OP if you are a frontline worker, you are clearly a very privileged one. If you’re not angry about what’s happened to us over the last 18 months (and before) then you are very much part of the problem. Out of the 100s of frontline workers I work with, don’t know a single person that is overjoyed at the Queen’s offering. You must be working someone pretty exceptional.

@HandforthParishCouncilClerk

It’s bullshit. Clapping, turning things blue, a theoretical medal that none of us even get a sticker for mean NOTHING. Pay us properly. Fund our services properly so we don’t all feel like we’re constantly letting people down. Don’t give contracts for vital equipment and PPE to Tory donors with zero experience and qualifications.

All of these meaningless gestures are just smoke and mirrors so the government can avoid actually doing anything.

This. Boris will say - "but you've got the George medal now, what more do you want?" And the public will say "here they go again, they are never satisfied"

Its convenient bullshit that the most of the public will fall for yet again.

The BMA are calling for Consultants to work to rule - go for it I say.

And the public will say "here they go again, they are never satisfied" Its convenient bullshit that the most of the public will fall for yet again

I disagree. I’m beyond angry about the 1% payrise. Particularly when the triple lock pension could mean that people like me who sit on their arse doing nothing are likely to get 8% more next year. The blatant unfairness is appalling.

NHS are making a huge mistake in conflating pay with the GC though. They’re two completely separate issues.

It’s not just consultants - ironically the highest paid clinical staff in the NHS - who should work to rule, it’s every single front line employee. Let’s see the effect of losing all that goodwill that makes so much difference. I hope all the unions get involved in this and force this apology for a government to sort it out.

@BlessedBeTheFruitandNut

OP if you are a frontline worker, you are clearly a very privileged one. If you’re not angry about what’s happened to us over the last 18 months (and before) then you are very much part of the problem. Out of the 100s of frontline workers I work with, don’t know a single person that is overjoyed at the Queen’s offering. You must be working someone pretty exceptional.

There are very, very few frontline nurses who post on MN anymore. It’s a fairly toxic environment. So I know I’m not representative of MN. And you are not representative of every other nurse in the country. If I’d been paid a million quid over the last year it wouldn’t have made an iota of difference to the impact it’s had on our team. I will probably leave nursing soon. A payrise won’t make me stay.

There are very, very few frontline nurses who post on MN anymore

How on earth could you possibly know that?!!

@DismantledKing

Meaningless crap.

Exactly

Harkens back to a time when people gaf about honours and awards, but seeing as David Beckham and his ilk can get MBEs and OBEs for just breathing, I’m not sure how a GC even if it is ONLY the third ever collective GC (gasp, what an honour) really does anything at all.

I have to disagree with the OP and align with everyone else that says in my NHS trust we want more staff, nicer break out areas and actual breaks, and support to be able to look after patients safely. This news could have passed me by and it would still have had the same impact on me and my life.

Fuck the lipservice patronising gush that comes from an anachronistic monarchy and a vile nhs-hating government. Seriously.

There are very, very few frontline nurses who post on MN anymore. It’s a fairly toxic environment. So I know I’m not representative of MN

Oh please

And you’re not representative of the NHS workforce.

Plus, I didn’t say I was a nurse.

So all NHS workers, past and present, which I think is a few million? Can now put GC after their signature

Signed:

wgc GC

@RealhousewifeofStoke

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.

I asked my DD (recently qualified) she had a vague idea what it was but couldn't care less.

I'm glad you are so pleased with a virtual medal but so long as you all put up with gestures and insincere praise, the issues you mention (which have been going on in the NHS for years, my mum was a nurse) will continue.

Jeremy Hunt thinks 1000 babies would now be alive if the NHS had a properly funded maternity service, similar to Sweden, ours is understaffed and under funded (no thanks to JH)

Get off your content backside and fight for better T&C's and stop being complicit in this sham health service.

So Jeremy Hunt’s owning up to having blood on his hands? How on earth did I miss that?

I want an actual GC!!!

The clapping the medal.
Behind all of the that a very unorganised organisation run by too many managers. Wards constantly shut and experienced staff displaced. Leaving said wards with no experienced staff.
18 months of lack of communication within the NHS as to who can be seen who can't be seen.
I mean its amazing that we have free health care, but lets look after it, get rid of the crap managers, reduce the amount of services we offer and just offer less but really really well.
George Cross? prefer it if the NHS finances were sorted out - and us nurses we go to work and get paid, the whole clapping thing is real cheese.