To ask what the nursing/NHS strike will look like?

[PinkyU]

My experience of strike action is generally a complete walk out of staff and total cessation of service to illicit the highest level of disruption to the company or organisation.

Given the hugely important role of all these HCP what will the nursing/NHS strike look like? A skeleton staff, bank nurses (are they unionised?), private sector workers?

I feel a bit daft to not know how it will work but I’m sure there are others who don’t know either so hopefully my ignorance may help others as well as myself.

@PrincessofWellies you say everyone has taken a hit on their pay... Great so go join a union and do something about it. Us nurses are fighting to save a system that is failing due to constant underfunding and mismanagement. Other workers in other sectors have fought and won themselves a better deal. It's about time we joined them. Nurses are not stopping anyone else from doing something about their own profession's pay and working conditions.

Patients are already suffering the consequences of this as are that staff that have since left in droves and many are working cleaning or in aldi/lidl where the pay is not much less, and stress levels and responsibilities far far less.

How would a pay rise result in less staff? The amount it costs to fund agency staff that get paid x3 the amount a contracted staff member would be saved if nurses could be retained. Plus staff may actually have incentive to stay in their roles that they had to study for 3 plus years for then pay £120 a year for the 'privilege' of being in the role. Plus the amount thousands of us working for NHS have to pay to park at work... £400 a year at my trust.

@Kabbalah I for one will not be complaining if taxes rise to pay HCPs. As an oldie, I probably use them more than most, and I fully support their strike. Everything, except one thing, has risen in price. That one thing is the cost of labour. Why should they sell their only commodity, their labour, below market va!ue? Do you expect your supermarket to take a loss because otherwise, taxes may rise? What about your energy company? Should they do that too?

and before you through the "inflation" card at my argument, think about why inflation has risen to double figures, when most working people have had a virtual pay freeze for years

I hope so too. They don't get paid nearly enough, but speaking to the owner of a big agency this week he told me no chance, as the council does not pay him enough. He can't afford to pay his staff more. If they do strike it will be more pressure on the hospitals. One good thing is local councils have started a grant for carers, I am not entirely sure of the details but to help with car running costs etc.

People are already dying. Because this disgusting, incompetent government have destroyed the NHS, along with the rest of the UK.

The Tory minister for Health, Therese Coffey said that nurses could fuck off if they didn't like their working conditions. Cunt!

Actually I would happily pay more tax if it was ringfenced for the NHS.

Large teaching hospital here. We are planning to stop:
all outpatient chemo and supportive care
elective surgery
elective hospital admissions for other planned treatments

What will be running:
inpatient beds will be staffed for existing and emergency admissions
a&e will be open

Ambulance service here.

Our ballot ends shortly.

I believe the official line is that we will still provide 'life and limb' cover.

That's why they are striking now for this precise reason...

Whats your job at this hospital, are you the official spokesperson.

No they're striking for higher pay

No the strike action will take place at a most inconvenient time for maximum effect. Hopefully it will have the desired effect.

You may also find junior doctors and AHP’s drafted in to help out on wards and clinics.

This is what happened for the junior doctors strike so I imagine it will work both ways

Then I guess people will need to think really carefully about who they vote for and what priorities they want their political leaders to have. People are dying now because of underfunding in the nhs and its inability to recruit and retain nurses.

Matron.

This was going on long before Brexit

Drs are also considering striking.

Those nurses will be stacking shelves at Tesco because they get better pay and work conditions

Nonsense. Compare your pension with that of someone who stacks shelves.

I doubt the nurses will go and stack shelves instead, it's the care workers that do that as they get much less pay and benefits than nurses

As a midwife I’d refuse. Partly because I’m not going to cross an RCN picket line and I support my nursing colleagues but also because I’m not a nurse. I’m not normally allowed to work as a nurse, I haven’t been trained to work as a nurse, I don’t feel it’s safe for me to work as a nurse.

@User438651209

It's not often literally stacking shelves that we lose staff for but staff do give up the pension to leave the NHS. Nursing is accepted by many graduate schemes like tescos and sales companies love it as an entry degree. AHP also use their degree to get onto relevant science grad schemes.

Yep, the skills are very transferable.

In the last year, as well as early retirement and private healthcare we’ve lost clinical nurses to: pharmaceutical companies, research, university lecturing, disability assessors, retail management training, patient advisors for charities, recruitment industry. The younger nurses have no attachment to the NHS pension as they haven’t paid in long and it’s been significantly downgraded. Their priorities are finding enough money to live now, they don’t have the luxury of worrying about 40 years on.

No idea, although most of us voted to strike. I haven't met anyone who actually will. I certainly will not. I presume elective surgery will be cancelled but everything else will go ahead.

I think so.

The NHS is already operating at unsafe levels. 47k vacancies.

what would prefer the NHS deteriorates further and staff continue to leave as the pay and conditions are so poor.

All the outpatient work will stop (chemo etc) and elective hospital admissions for surgery and investigations.