Island Echo welcomes letters to the editor, which may of course not reflect the views of the publication and its staff.
Letter to the editor – 29th January 2026
“I have been and still am in St Mary’s Hospital where I’ve witnessed a mind blowing situation.
“My nursing assistant works a 12 hour shift. So she rises at 05:00 leaves her home in Cowes in time to start her shift at 08:00.
Article continues below this advertisement “Her feet hardly touch the floor throughout the shift.
“At 20:00 she can leave the hospital to catch a bus but that bus does not take her to Cowes.
“Her choice is to run to Hunnyhill rather than pay to go one stop. Eventually she gets home at around 21:30 only to eat her supper, go to sleep and do it all again the following day.
“This woman has spirit and I thank her profusely for caring for me and many others.
“I’d like the person behind the desk who organised this fiasco to shadow her for a day and come up with a better solution.”
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Alison T
Ryde
Some employees are dedicated, many are not, obviously she
is a good egg, sadly many employees only do the job
for the money and NHS perks, some do it as a calling.
This was my norm whilst working in the City. If anything this builds character and resilience. There are many people that spend numerous hours commuting and working long hours; forget your 35 to 40 hour work weeks and doubls it.
In the old days many nurses and assistants were working
longer weeks and spent much more time travelling
to the hospitals they worked in on less pay.
Cowes to Newport is no distance at all.
Wow, that’s pure dedication, I hope she’s paid well, if not why?
Lives in cowes and woks at st Mary’s. The busses are picking up and dropping off outside the hospital both sides. I don’t understand her issue with busses.
Obviously milking it.
The route for the buses can’t go through hunnyhill there’s the detour, anyway stop being such a misery, this isn’t about complaining it’s about someone saying nice things about a worker!
Do you work there?
Welcome to the NHS it’s how it is and how it’s always been.
I worked in St Mary’s for 30 years rarly got all my lunch break, started early, and more often than not left after my finish time.
It’s not a new situation it’s just people’s expectations of life in the NHS is nieve.
I have every symathy with the plight of people who work in hospitals but I think some perspective is required here. It is approx. seven miles between Cowes and Newport. Journey time must surely be less than an hour – you could walk it easily in an hour and a half. It is therefore unclear why this person needs to rise three hours before she is due at work, nor why she takes so long to get home. A twelve hour shift is indeed long and undoubtedly she will be on her feet for most of that time but she will have signed up for those shifts and she will have known that the nature of the job would prevent it being sedentary. It is also the case that many people have these sorts of working patterns and journeys to and from work. I would not describe the situation as mind-blowing since it is the same for a great many people.
We have to be grateful for our marvellous NHS staff and they should be properly paid and looked after (and can we please stop using the fact that many feel they have a vocation as an excuse for exploitation) but they are not alone in facing a daily uphill struggle just to keep their heads above water.
That’s called working life. Today’s society can’t cope with a proper working life . Years ago and even in the major cities this is life especially in the major hospitals and businesses. No 9-5 for everyone unless living half on benefits
Is there anyone who might just say well done for perseverance? So it’s character building is it? Many of us worked long hours and the time before and after added to make it a much longer day, I doubt she moan a lot, but somebody else has noticed and witnessed her still having the grace to be kind and caring as she should be in that profession, even though she’s frustrated and tired. It makes me wonder if some people commenting on here have ever done a hard and challenging days work in their miserable lives at all?
TBH they may work 12 hour shifts
but will only have to do three shifts a week for full time
plenty of people have to commute for work and have days like this
like a previous comment said the journey is only seven miles