To remind you to be thankful for ALL NHS staff?

[pizzaorpine]

Not just Doctors, nurses and midwives?

I just want to also clarify that this isn't a personal attack on anyone since I know a lot of people are grateful for everyone working in the NHS.

I worked for the NHS for a while as a PA. The band below me, medical secretaries, use to work their bloody arses off for less money and less 'band'.

They would work tirelessly in that particular department to ensure you get your appointments arranged and everything is put into place. They organised referrals and arranged treatment times and dates. I think people forget that without that you don't get treatment in the first place!

Lots of them put in overtime to make sure things were running as smoothly as possible for patients.

Another type of person would be the healthcare assistants. They deal with a lot of shite and no, they're not nurses.

AIBU to say these people deserve the thanks too?

Sorry, but I've come across several shocking employees, so I'll continue to take each case on its merits and be grateful to all the good ones.

I worked in the NHS as a nurse for 30+ yrs and I didn’t expect anyone to be thankful at all , I was paid to do a job which I did to the best of my ability . People shouldn’t be any more ‘thankful’ to NHS staff than they are for staff of any other business .

I say thank you to anyone I come across who deserves thanks. The cleaning staff are often the most under estimated for all they do.

Whilst some (most?) do go above and beyond, not all do. Just like other jobs, some do the bare minimum and can be bloody rude. Working for the NHS doesn’t mean they’re saints. I’m always thankful to those I encounter who are helpful and kind but I wouldn’t stretch that to every worker, nurse, doctor or admin staff regardless.

I realise I haven't worded my post well. Yes I do agree that someone doesn't deserve thanks just for working for the NHS!

You can get some pretty shitty people anywhere you go.

But, it always seems that when thanks and appreciation is declared, nobody mentions anyone else but doctors, nurses and midwives.

I was once a medical receptionist in a fertility department. A happy couple brought their much longer for baby in to show the staff and they left lots of wine for the staff as a thank you (this is maybe before there were rules about what you can accept or maybe we just flouted them). The dad as he was leaving said to make sure I took a bottle and I said oh I'm just the receptionist and he turned back and said "you're the person who makes the appointments and are the first person we speak to every time we phone or come to an appointments. Without people like you the doctors wouldn't have time to do their jobs so please take a bottle."

It's always stuck with me. There was a cleaner who took time to talk to me when I'd had my first baby and was a bit overwhelmed and that meant a lot to me.

Like any large organisation there are good and bad workers. NHS is not the only service we all depend on. We also need bin men, fire brigade, food production people, sewage farm operators etc. All contribute to our society in important ways.

@AnalUnicorn good point! It's amazing how everything works together to ensure our society runs smoothly. It's all a bit mind boggling if you think about it

It’s not unreasonable to only be grateful to the people you had direct contact with during a birth/ operation whatever. Otherwise you’d get down to ‘thanks so much to the builder who built the walls so I could give birth inside a building and the delivery driver who delivered the bricks and cement and the foreman at the brick factory who made sure the bricks were the right size and the digger driver at the quarry where they got the bits to make the bricks. You could go on forever. I know there’s lots of people in the NHS that made the birth of my child as comfortable and safe as possible. But I’m only buying chocolates for the ones directly involved.

Sunny that's beautiful

Having just had school and college students visit our Trust on work experience for the last two weeks, I have been saying exactly that to the students. Most want to be doctors and have no idea about other clinical roles other than nursing, so we talk about all the allied health professionals who never get mentioned either as well as all the administrative staff, the cleaners, the porters, the IT people, he catering staff, the maintenance team and everyone else who keeps the hospital running. We cannot function without each and every one of them.

This is quite a thought provoking article TBH. Many behind the scenes staff perform very well in their jobs,allowing those in the front line to do theirs!.I think politeness and good manners should be extended to all!

I'm a nurse and a simple please and thank you do go along way

Sewrainbow it is bloody scary isn’t it!

I’m a band 3 who works in cardiology and I only have this job because I worked as a band 2 healthcare assistant when the job came up.

I work alongside bands 2 to 8A and had no idea those jobs existed until i began working there. Had I known I would have chosen a degree in that field where there is a national shortage of staff rather than what I did do.

There are so many jobs that people just don’t know exist because they aren’t promoted to people at school/college and then the NHS struggles to recruit staff because of the lack of qualified people around.

Nhs admin staff often get overlooked, when actually, not much would get done without them!

Don't get me wrong there are some shocking ones! But more often than not they're bloody brilliant at their jobs! I don't know what we'd do without them.

Happy 71st birthday to our wonderful NHS! I adore my team and you wouldn't find a more loving, caring and supportive group of women working anywhere else! I love it ☺️

I work in a hospital. The place would grind to a halt without the cleaners.

It’s interesting how rude people can be. I often pick up the phone as I’m walking past one of the stations and a relative will be astonishingly rude - demanding, short, openly sarcastic even. When I say I’m one of the doctors- instant personality change. Almost grovelling. This switch when they think they’re talking to someone ‘more important’ is how I know this person is an absolute twat.

Although YANBU for wanting to thank all NHS staff. Where is your big thanks for cleaners, bin men, solicitors, scientists, shop workers, teachers, hairdressers, taxi drivers etc.......
Sick of this attitude that one job is more saintly than another and needs special praise. All jobs contribute to society and all people get paid for said jobs.

I worked for the NHS for a while as a PA. The band below me, medical secretaries, use to work their bloody arses off for less money and less 'band'.

A med sec was instrumental in my being diagnosed with microlithiasis at a time doctors were saying nothing wrong. She got a bunch of flowers, instrumental in a consultant appointment, tests being arranged and follow up.

Oh, and a HCA sat with me all night when I was having a massive panic attack after being admitted to a ward. Incredible empathy, the very first person I was able to express why I had panic attacks to. Amazing.

Stop being so bloody bossy.

Mandatory gratitude is fake gratitude.

You do you. Let other people think for themselves.

NHS staff get paid to do a job and aren't forced into that line of employment. HOWEVER, as with any government funded organisation, they have to gate keep extremely limited resources and the stress of that, and the hassle they from the public for it are immense.

Yeah, maybe it’s because the NHS receptionists I have come across are, almost universally, the rudest, most abrupt people you’ll ever meet. I have never come across people who people are the face of a department in other organisations who are downright rude.

Piglet NHS medical secs aren't patient facing usually

agree op, the admin staff get a lot of flack and scorn but the doctors would not manage without them!