Strikes: Anyone else think this country is screwed financially?

[TulipsandButterflies]

Watching the news about the RCN rejection of the NHS pay offer for nurses. Of course it has been rejected. The cost of living is continuing to rise and nurses, and other NHS staff, are leaving in droves due to crap pay and big workloads. I am NHS but in another profession (we are watching carefully what happens with this). I am doing the work of 3 and under immense pressure at work (although it wasn’t as bad as this in my previous roles a few years ago). I’ve just been told my blood pressure is higher than it should be which has really worried me so I have started looking elsewhere for work (I started in the NHS in 1996).

Junior docs are also striking. Teachers and others too!

With the cost of living continuing to rise, people will start to struggle…especially those with a young family or people who are single.

What can be done? Raise national insurance? Raise tax? Something has to happen. I admire nurses for taking a stand. They aren’t just striking for a decent pay rise but also for safer staffing levels. A lot of NHS staff will be struggling with their own health. This has to be addressed.

And, what happens with the NHS pay rise of Unison members have accepted it but the RCN has rejected it?

I think the country is messed up and it’s worrying!

Take a look at why energy prices are so high and energy company profits also so high if you want another example of state and private industry hand in hand to steal from the public.

The price per unit is set at an arbitrarily high level based on a formula with little if any connection to the actual price of producing energy in the UK.

I think the high levels of sick leave are common in jobs where people feel underpaid and undervalued. I work as teaching assistant in a school and it’s exactly the same in our department. As you say, high levels of absenteeism only make the job of the other staff harder. Until they in turn are run down or badly affected by stress and so the cycle continues.
The Tories have wasted so much money. Imagine if it had been invested in healthcare and education instead.

The NHS needs to be replaced by a German or French style system. The clinical expertise in the NHS is second to none but the business support is shocking.

Pension triple lock needs to be scrapped.

Council tax needs reviewing.

I would consider more Road charging schemes.

Parents should pay towards school books etc, as they do in Ireland and many other EU countries.

Sin tax on junk food and takeaways.

I suppose under 18’s can’t but pensioners could.

I also think politicians need to start listening to young people we can't afford to rent or buy and our issues never get listened to. We have an ageing population and this country is doing nothing to fix why people can't afford to have kids.

No, no no to increased income tax and NI. The middle are being punished already with the daylight robbery that is the freezing of the tax thresholds until 2028.

They need to tax the wealthy, not the Just About Managing.

The Government have planned for short term. I've just turned 30 I'm coming to terms with there will be no NHS retirement will be at least 70 and euthanasia will be legalised because there won't be enough young people to do the caring. We are growing poorer as a country. Society was only interested in short term thinking and house prices. Half a trillion of extra money was printed during covid that's why we have the inflation. The government also were handing out contracts to their mates. People were happy sitting in the garden on 80 percent pay but it's damaged the economy and it will be damaged for a long time. People want free healthcare , good schools , services when we are running out of high skilled professionals who pay the tax burden.

It's time to think about growth but not house prices.

As long as the nation keeps voting the Tories in, I think we are fucked yes. It's not like we didn't know they are self serving liars (ok not all of this particular crew but you know the hints were pretty strong)

@BenCoopersSupportWren

id start by splitting AfC pay scales in the nhs. Clinical and non clinical.

2 separate pay scales. Admin/office/management on one scale. Then clinical on another.

uplift clinical and lower non clinical pay. But freeze/cap non clinical pay above band 5.

as a senior clinician myself. I honestly do not know what band 6+ admin/management contribute!

Where do all the people leaving nursing in the NHS 'in droves' get jobs after they leave? "Virgin care", a private company, pay their nurses appallingly!!

Any public service the rich dont have to use will go to the dogs. That's it.

I think a lot are older and just retire earlier, some go back to the country they were poached from, some have babies and just do agency work and others do a different line of work.

Retire early, careers in pharma, hca pay better than the nhs, the young ones are leaving for Aus/NZ/emirates. Some move into general management. Many opt to have children and come back very part time. Retention is a big problem and it’s like trying to fill a leaky bucket.

I’ve just been talking to a very senior nurse who has said patients are now being affected. It’s terrible 😞.

I think the wealth inequality in the U.K. is so so vast. Apparently my OH and I are in the top 3% of earners and whilst we are comfortable and don’t struggle to pay the electricity and buy food we live in a small 3 bed terraced house with tiny garden and would struggle to afford to live more than a month if we lost our jobs and have limited savings.

If we are considered the top there must be a minuscule number of people who hold vast amounts of wealth as we can’t afford luxury holidays or designer labels and clothes or cars. Where is all the money kept? Who has it? And who affords those big houses I drive past? I think there is a ton of money made in this country and then shipped to off shore accounts and tax dodged. The royal family for one could pay more tax according to the proportion of their wealth including inheritance tax.

There was a thing in The Times today about Jeremy Hunt being able to make tax cuts. Why are the Tories so obsessed with cutting tax? How are we supposed to pay for anything?

Record numbers of people relying on food banks (as shown in the link) but yet we are still spending ridiculous sums of money on the King’s coronation. It’s all a farce and should stop! Far too much money is being thrown at that family imo.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65378823