To ask if you support the proposed strike by Nursing and Midwifery staff?

[SeattleGraceMercyDeath]

For the first time in I think 32 years nursing staff have voted to go on strike and midwives, having never voted to strike in their history will be joining them in a four hour walkout from 7am on 13th October.

The NHS pay review recommended a 1% pay rise across the board, yet government decided they could ignore this and only award the rise to those at the top of their band and would take it away again next year. Despite awarding themselves an 11% pay rise after proclaiming they couldn't possibly ignore their review bodies recommendation.

Essential services will still be covered, eg Delivery suite, ITU etc.

Do you support the staff? If you are a frontline healthcare worker will you be striking? I'm not due to work that day but I will be at the picket line showing my support.

Yes I do completely.

I'm sure certain sections of the media will try to suggest you are evil and greedy, but I think (hope) the general public have more sense than to fall for that.

Thank you dinky, and I agree of course!

I have started shouting the c word very loudly in my head (I never use that word either) anytime I see, hear or think anything to do with the Tories. Utter scum making professional people beg on their knees for 1%

Completely support them.

This shower of shites that are in government atm won't stop until they've annihilated the NHS.

I'm torn here, I completely agree with the reasoning and as a Nurse it directly affects me but I have always said I would never go on strike, I just couldn't.

I support anyone who does decide to go on strike and I hope that they will support anyone who feels that they have to go to work.

My unit would collapse if even a few of us went on strike and personally I couldn't let that happen.

My unit are double staffing people on that morning to support the strike.

100% support the strike.

I support them, despite the fact that I am 37+ weeks pregnant.

I definitely support them! And would say it's about bloody time!

In Australia nurses are on a decent salary and one which allows them a reasonable standard of living.

But this is because there they have a strong nursing union and wouldn't put up with the crap that's pulled here.

In the UK the solution has been to recruit staff from overseas to plug staff shortages. However foreign origin nurses do not always want to stay in the UK forever. Quite a few make their money here, send it home and leave when they feel they have enough for a better future for themselves and their children in their country of origin. Overseas nurses make a brilliant contribution to the health service but they are not all looking to be here for a long time. And to be blunt they are seen as a source of cheap labour as £20,000 or so a year looks good when you come from a country which pays significantly less... what overseas staff haven't always factored in is that UK [particularly London] rent prices and other costs of living are significantly higher. So they end up having to rent hospital based accommodation and save as much money as they can to send home to educate and support their children. And of course this isn't often feasible for British nurses with mortgages here to pay and families in the UK to support.

What the government isn't doing enough of imo is looking at how to recruit British nurses. Do they ever consider why there is a reliance on overseas staff? Why would any self respecting 18 year old even consider nursing as an occupation when the government treats nurses with such contempt.

In the past the nursing unions in the UK have been too weak and spineless to do much about the pay situation. It's good to see they are finally standing up for their members... I guess they finally remembered that those members are paying the membership fees which allow them to exist in the first place!

Not in the UK any more, but would be behind my nursing colleagues 100% if I were. The decisions this govt have made are despicable.

100% support.

A family member is in hospital at the moment and I've been blown away by how wonderful the nurses are.

100% Good luck.

My nhs trust hired a large number of newly qualified Spanish nurses last year, my ward took on 6 Spanish nurses. The majority of the nurses have left the trust (most stayed 6-9months) and it is now back in the same situation where they are considering going back abroad to collect more nurses to fill the voids.

Our trust was recently in dire straights due to finances as the cost of agency staff was through the roof. The reason they were reliant on the agency for staffing is because we work short staffed and are over worked to the point where we can't even contemplate working "bank" shifts

I support them and I'm 36 weeks pregnant (although essential services should be covered).

I totally support this.

This is the one service that every person born in the UK has needed in their life.

Well the midwifes are anyway. But I also love nurses

I never support strikes but I totally do this one. I get the same pay as a highly trained nurse and yet, being completely honest, have nowhere near the skills and responsibility they do, let alone work the hours, so on this occasion I completely support it.

I completely support the strike. Midwives work extremely hard, have a huge amount of responsibility and face increasingly stressful working conditions. A 1% rise is the very, very least they deserve.

If pay keeps falling relative to the cost of living, midwives will leave and it will be hard to train new midwives.

Definitely support you all. In solidarity with you, will be on the picket lines too

Oh god i can't get down from this fence.

...and 1% is not enough. 11% would be fair

Oh yes Chixie, and NHS departments pay fees to recruitment agencies for these nurses... who then ultimately have to be replaced and the cycle starts again.

Meanwhile the hospital budget apparently cannot stretch to pay rises for existing staff or training for career development.

Oh no, hospital managers are too busy paying outside 'consultants' to teach them management strategy and obtain their cheap labour.

Too bad there's nothing left in the pot to retain frontline staff

I support every union and their right to strike, this government stinks.

I'm having a c section on the 7th soothe strike is bound to affect my postnatal appointments. Still support them 100%

absolutely support. the government have long taken advantage of the dedication of nursing staff whose first concern is for their patients

To be blunt, no I don't support the strikes, my wife has worked in the NHS until recently before she became full time agency.
I have to say the attitude displayed by some of the fulltime staff on her arrival to cover the shifts given to her would certainly not be described as professional.. Staff only seem to cooperate when the CQC are imminent and even then the veil often slips...

Some staff seem to forget about the class leading pension and other benefits such as sick pay and flexible working..
The E Rostering system is diabolical and was originally devised as a tool to save using agency staff, but it has not worked and agency staff are on the rise... Apart from the fact family life is disrupted by the idiotic implementation and division of shifts by managers..

What I would do is abolish the pension, raise basic pay significantly and assess staff members and those who consistently fail basic duties within their discipline would be sacked..