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.

I haven't read the whole thread but yes, yes, yes, I support them.

frank you are describing management problems. and you don't sound very supportive of your own wife's profession

I 100% support it - I'm astonished at how little nurses earn considering the work they do is both physically exhausting and has high levels of responsibility.

Frank bough -Sick pay and flexible working should be in addition to the pay increase and pensions. Your wife's experience is subjective and doesn't give any evidential base to your argument. The only thing it suggests is that your wife doesn't seem to get on with the people she works with. The tone of your post suggests why.

Hmm flexible working frank ? Only when it suits service needs I Put in a flexible working request as/I have a disabled child I was outright refused it ,the NHS don't give a stuff about their own. Staff

Flexible working? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Also, the NHS pensions aren't what they used to be. Mine is going to be crap.

I completely support the midwives even though the strike is the day before my due date and has the potential to affect either antenatal or postnatal appointments. The midwives I've seen work extremely hard and deserve to be treated well.

Completely support and IMO it's not about pay freezes at all ( I've lived with that and can continue to) it's about all of the shit going on that a lot of the public aren't aware of.

I'm a nurse (MH) and in my city, community services have been 'redesigned' so for example, a team that had 12 Band 6s ( pay band which reflects knowledge, experience, skills) have to become 6 band 6s and 6 band 5s so people now have to apply for the job they've already been doing for years and someone else will decide whether they're worth that (guess they are since they've been doing it for friggin years) or if they should be downgraded with no real justification other than that the NHS trust needs to save money.

Dedicated, skilled people who already work more hours than they're have paid for and have families and bills to pay are suddenly told they have to take an enormous paycut (with no real change to job description).

And if you don't like it then leave.

If we don't demonstrate what may happen if we aren't here then the government will continue to play on our obvious dedication to patient care.

I am a Nurse and getting no pay rise this year. The demands being made on me in my job are increasing all the time and I am so stressed on a daily basis trying to do my best with less resources. I have never agreed with strike action before in my 25 years of Nursing but enough is enough .

As a midwife it is lovely to hear support on here.... I wasn't 100% sure what the genreral feeling would be. I am rostered to work on labour ward that day and will still be working as the strike will not cover 'essential areas' such as labour ward etc.
We work hours over our contractual hours per year, I regularly work a 12.5 hr shift with no break, even to run to the toilet and all we want is a 1% pay rise.

blimey mrsboldon talk about divide and conquer

I support the strike completely and I say this as a 33 week pregnant woman.

It's shocking the way this government treats the NHS and it's about time it started listening to the front line workers.

100% support here ... It's about so much more than pay. People have no idea how much damage is being done to public services

And Frank: I had six months off sick after a service user tried to kill me in his home. I'd met him twice by that point and he thought I was witholding a (nonexistent) hospital bed.

I absolutely appreciated the fact I was not thrown into poverty by my sickness but also felt that my previous 15 yrs of service working with some of the most unwell and/or dangerous people in my city and giving 100% of myself (to a great personal cost) meant that I thought my employer should perhaps treat me as well as I treated people on my caseload.

And I paid into my NHS pension late as I simply couldn't afford it before that and I am eligible for my NHS pension when I am 68.5 years old. I'm more than 30 years away from that now and given the stress of my job I'm certainly not thinking it's some kind of gravy train.....I'd be surprised if I live that long to be honest.

you do wonder if Cameron and his pals actually use their brains.

I also rarely support strikes but this is under extreme provocation.

Absolutely support them.

And a massive we'll done to the conservative government for pushing midwives into taking strike action for the first time in history. Quite an achievement.

As i nurse i completely support them. They were thinking of balloting years ago so this has been a long time coming. Gordy is right, it's not just about pay, it's about working conditions, staff-patient ratios, shit management, reduced budgets etc etc etc. The NHS is on it's arse.

Just to say it's not just nurses and midwives. Frontline ambulance staff are also striking on 13th for four hours and then doing no voluntary overtime that week.

Yep, support them 100%

Midwives do one of the most important jobs there is. They're worth their weight in gold.

32 weeks pregnant and also support the strike 100%. And I don't think 1% is enough.

Precisely Mrs boldon I am also a mh nurse my trust have just decided to cut 50 beds well they decided ages ago but it was rubber stamped yesterday as they can now manage seriously unwell patients that previously needed inpatient treatm ent in the community with no mention of extra community staff this is to save over two million. Pounds over two years ,they neglect to tell the general public that they spent over two million pounds refurbishing the wards they are now closing down less than two years ago ,im no financial expert but this makes no sense to me?

Sorry I forgot about ambulance staff.

I'm due on the 20th so glad that essential services will be covered but yes, absolutely support the strike.

Total support from me, every experience I've had with midwives/nurses have highlighted their sheer bloody hard graft under demanding conditions. Think they should be given a level of pay that reflects their skills and levels of commitment, this should of course be at a rate that puts them at the top end of public sector workers, above that of administrators.

For the rest of the week following the strike period we will also be carrying out 'action short of a strike' so breaks will be taken and no unpaid overtime will be done.