Nurses from the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT) and Solent NHS Trust withheld their labour and took to a picket line outside St Mary’s Hospital today (Wednesday) in a row over pay.
Local employees of the 2 Trusts were joined by Isle of Wight politicians from the Green and Labour parties as they braved the elements to stand united outside the Island’s only hospital on Parkhurst Road, Newport.
Nurses from the MPFT provide drug and alcohol counselling treatment. Solent NHS Trust Nurses are responsible for nursing in schools and in the community.
Michael Eccles, Picket Supervisor for MPFT nurses and an Clinical Nurse Specialist himself, explains his reasons for taking industrial action:
“Every year the workload goes up and pay goes down in real terms, and we lose nurses each year. There are 47,500 nursing vacancies in England alone.
“You’re a nurse for a reason. If you can’t do your job properly through overwork, you feel like you’re letting people down. You end up walking home depressed because you haven’t been able to do everything you could do.”
Michael said of the public reaction to pickets outside the hospital:
“We’ve had a very positive reaction and lots of support from passers-by. There hasn’t been a single negative reaction.”
Another nurse on the picket line – Clare George – commented:
“The strike is about staff retention and recruitment. We can’t retain staff if we don’t value them. Patients are suffering because of this.”
The strike picket was joined by Richard Quigley from the Isle of Wight Labour party.
Richard told Island Echo:
“It isn’t the case that the country can’t afford to pay nurses more; it’s more the case that we can’t afford not to. We have sufficient wealth for a proper pay rise for all public sector workers, especially nurses.
“Giving nurses a pay rise will not increase inflation because they do not produce anything and the cost of this will not be passed on to consumers. Also, 30% of any pay rise will go back to the exchequer in taxes and national insurance, and the remainder of the money will be spent in the local economy here on the Island.
“I don’t understand the Government’s plan. Unless they want the country on its knees, they need to get round the table and negotiate with the nursing unions. They can’t expect the public to clap nurses one day and then sack them the following day.”
The strike is being supported by the Isle of Wight National Education Union (NEU).
Peter Shreeve, on behalf of the NEU, has said:
“We wanted to listen to the concerns of these staff and found amazing similarity to those of education support staff and teachers. Frustration that they cannot do the job that they love, for which they trained.
“In both health and education, it is well documented that both patients and pupils have not been receiving the support and care needed. Government says a pay rise is unaffordable. What is unaffordable is the constant and growing inability of both services to provide support.”
The picket of St Mary’s Hospital by striking nurses began at 07:00 this morning (Wednesday) and is set to last until 18:00 tomorrow (Thursday).
Isle of Wight NHS Trust services are not affected by today’s strike action.
‘Drugs and Alcohol’ another great drain on the NHS
Perhaps, but if you had a family member that needed help because of those issues, would you not expect the help from the NHS?
They get £30/45 a yr 6.5 weeks paid holiday full sick pay yet home care workers only get £10 hr no sick pay 14 days holiday pay get back to work. it’s just Greed
I think it’s OK for home care workers union to picket as well.
The starting salary for a nurse is £27K.
They get 28 days paid holiday and are entitled to sick pay as are many other workers in other professions.
You have no idea what it is like to work on the front line.
Are you responsible for 14 people’s lives all at once, all with different medical conditions? Are you responsible for making medical decisions for these people? No, I highly doubt it, because if you were your comment would be more compassionate.
Carers do a fantastic job and they aren’t paid enough either – but let’s not play off nurses against carers – anyone who works in healthcare deserves a pay rise!
Well if you’re frontline, (27 years here) there’s always other clinicians available from fellow nurses up to consultants so the responsibility isn’t on one nurse. Stop trying to big the jobs responsibilities up. Slightly different on an ambulance. The clinician on an ambulance bares that responsibility, they don’t have a 2222 system available or Drs on the ward. Patients arrive from an ambulance treated and packaged up ready for further treatment. Nurses also get unsocial hours payment. Band 5 and 6 nurses get a good salary compared to the ward healthcare assistants who actually do more patient contact than the qualified staff. If you are frontline, you and me both know what I’ve written is correct.
27 years as what, Brian.
Odd that you don’t say.
This isn’t a comparison between healthcare staff. All staff within health and social care carry a great deal of responsibility – albeit different for different vocations.
Paramedics do a fantastic job and are one of the bravest vocations – they are first on scene, making difficult, life saving decisions at times. HCAs are not paid to reflect their responsibilities – I agree. Without them, nurses would be unable to do their job effectively. But this isn’t just about nurses – their striking to show that the whole NHS is broken. Why is no one bashing the DRs who are planning a 72hr strike? They earn lots more than nurses and paramedics.
More money won’t take away the responsibility, and like the Police, Firemen and the volunteer Lifeboat men, IF you can’t handle ‘responsibility simply don’t ‘do’ that job.
They are known in the NHS to take the mick out of ‘sick days’, and they get good pensions.
27k for a green starter is very good and very generous.
Just admit it is more money and don’t ‘use’ ‘care of patients as your excuse for greed to try to gain public sympathy for we are not that gullible now, as most of us know people in the NHS, it being such a large employer and realise that many truly don’t deserve more money ‘just’ because they have responsibility.
The NHS is poorly run, appointments often don’t come through and poorly treated by inferior staff.
Ironically, you have highlighted the problem without knowing it. With 1 in 10 clinical posts vacant at St Mary’s it is clear that not enough are willing to take on the level of responsibility required for the pay on offer.
It isn’t about what you think is fair. It is about what those considering a career in medicine or nursing think is fair and, currently, nowhere near enough do.
There is also the little issue that, due to understaffing, the levels of stress heaped on nursing staff has increased dramatically in the last few year. They may have been able to handle the “responsibility” as it was 15 years ago, but today, when one “critical incident” follows another it the stress is 10 times higher.
I find your comment incredibly deorrogatory.
Carers, nurses, paramedics, HCA’s and other healthcare staff alike do the job because they have a passion for it. No one in health care does it for the money – I can assure you.
Why are healthcare staff always bashed for taking a stand for their conditions?
Most healthcare staff do not get a lunch break on a 12.5 hour shift, unlike most corporate 9-5 jobs who probably get an hour at a set time every day – and are possible earning more.
Some areas of the NHS are easier to work in than others, but we’re specifically talking about A&E and the wards, where they are run of their feet.
If you have such a grievance with the NHS, then perhaps you would like to pay for private healthcare?
Everyone knows the NHS is currently on its knees, something needs to be done.
Over 7mil on waiting lists, acutely unwell patients waiting in corridors for days on end because they are no beds on the wards. Nurses are striking to highlight patient safety – ironic perhaps, as striking doesn’t help the already spiralling situation – but these issues have been going on long before nurses chose to strike – and if the issue isn’t dealt with, more people will die unnecessarily! Nurses go above and beyond. If you’ve not experienced that, then I’m sorry – but one experience does not define the NHS and the hardworking staff that do try!
27 k Is very good and very generous start pay ??? What when you’ve just spent 4 years of your life and 40 to 50k of your own money training to be one ?
I’m pretty sure care workers are no where near as highly trained or qualified as nurses. But I could be wrong
No, they’re not, but that doesn’t make their job any less important.
If we didn’t have care workers, where would the elderly go when they need to be discharged from hospital and can’t remain at home?
Social care is on its knees just like the NHS, and care workers deserve recognition, too.
Nurses take many years to train and can specialise, whilst gaining extra clinical skills. But carers are the ones that wash and dress, help them into bed at night, keep them busy during the day with activities, take them on days out, soothe them when they may be confused – the list is endless. I know not all are like this and there are a bad bunch, but the majority are good and want to help.
Yes but the point remains that they cannot expect the same money as nurses as they are no where near as highly qualified.
I don’t think they’re asking to be paid the same as nurses, I believe they’re asking to be acknowledged and receive an increase, not necessarily have it matched.
Care workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday not just 14 days! (Bank Holidays are included in those weeks) & all workers get sick pay as it’s paid by the Government!
How blind, ridiculous comments like these should be banned. I hope you don’t need urgent nursing care any time soon. If I were a nurse and knew who you were I’d probably murder you !!
It is not you who make the decisions or provide analysis of illnesses or post op treatment, you are a nurse, you look after patients after others far better qualified have decided what you do,agree with other commentators you are trying to big up what you actually do.
Oh, but we do.
Which is exactly one of the many reasons for highlighting the issues.
Nurses aren’t Dr’s assistants like they may well have been years ago. They are their own worker in their own right. Many nurses now have the same responsibility, maybe slightly less, as a doctor. Many can now prescribe medications and make decisions on your care.
Even those that are not at that level monitor patients all day – they are the eyes and ears of the doctors. By all means, thank your surgeon for your new hip, but the doctor sees you for 2 minutes during their ward round in the morning – the 12 hours and 28 minutes of the shift it’s the nurse and HCA that are looking after you.
Just for reference, what do/did you do for a living, “bob”?
I think it’s kind of important to know those facts about someone who is suggesting that others are being greedy for wanting more pay, don’t you.
For reference I am a chartered freelance software engineer and earn around £85k a year on average. Knowing a few nurses and midwives, I certainly wouldn’t suffer their working conditions for level of pay they get.
Life’s all about choices, seems you may of made some poor ones Bob
The banner saying staff shortages cost lives coming from them stood outside not working costing lives
IF the nurses get their rise, then NONE will strike for the ‘lack of care’ for patients.
Purely selfish, greedy, over paid, easy cushy job, fully paid sick money, lots have days and days off pretending to be sick.
Angels with blood on their hands imo
Or maybe people will be more likely to take it up as a profession, which they aren’t currently. Common sense.
Clearly IF ‘we’ the tax payer who WILL end up paying more for their wages were to pay them ten times more, then almost everyone would rush to become a Nurse.
But people should take up that profession because they ‘want’ to care and help people, not to boast of their luxury lifestyle to friends.
So more money is not the answer for staffing issue.
What IS needed is to stop paying people via tax credits to breed, so that women NEED to work to pay their way, not have a kid or two then only do 16hrs a week
and gain a free house and c.tax and free school meals, uniforms, transport, health care etc etc etc etc.
Luxury lifestyle? Inflation is 10% YoY (well, it’s more but lets round down for easy math) so £33/h today is the same lifestyle as £30/h a year ago.
£30 from the year of Brexit referendum equals to £37.50 today. £50,000 then is £63,000 today (after frozen tax bands!). Again: for the _exactly same lifestyle._
And in 2016 Brits voted for Brexit: it’s way harder to get EU nurses to come in so we have shortages and there’s supply and demand in action. Sure, you can get some from Asia but that’s still dancing with visas and even when nurses get extra points, it’s still slower and more work than EU FoM. You want more nurses in land with tight borders where you cannot import cheap labour? You must pay more for it. Simple market dynamics.
And “Boom” there it is… it’s the fault of ‘Brexit’
please….
I wouldn’t say a fault. Just… a condition on top of others. You decide whether it’s good or not for you I guess. After all “we don’t want cheap labour from EU stealing our jobs, lets get better pay for Brits” was one of the goals so one could say it’s even a… success?
The harder it is to procure the workers, the more power they have in the market so they can strike and demand more easier. It’s not a fault or success, just… market climate.
As stated they need to end making having children a lifestyle.
So much money is paid to parents in tax credits, U/C and cheap or free rent and council tax, that is simple does not pay them to bother to work, so IF that were cut to the very bone, then more local women could and would work in the NHS, and prevent the need to import more people here.
Your comment is ignorant.
Having children is not and never has been a ‘lifestyle’. Yes, whilst there are families out there that milk the system, that’s not to say that it’s the same for everyone. Many families work and use UC and tax credits as a top up – because let’s face it, this country is backwards – it doesn’t pay well.
And who’s to say that ‘local women’ would want to work in the NHS? Yes, we need staff, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea…
And it’s not about importing people here – those that come from other countries are highly skilled workers and contribute massively.
Plus, what about childcare?
Let’s have a kid, but pay for someone else to look after them 5 days a week – may as well not have them at all.
The government need to change their ways sharpish – if they may going back to work for mothers more accessible, then you wouldn’t have families having to use UC and tax credits.
Childcare is expensive – for 9 hours of childcare it’s £66 a day…that’s over £1300 a month – the average workers monthly wage. Why are mothers expected to go back to work, earn money, but use that same money to pay for someone else to look after their children?
As I said, your comment is ignorant – it has nothing to do with the crisis the NHS is in – you’re just a misogynistic, old man that probably ‘wants to make Britain great again’.
Unless you have something helpful to say, I’d keep quiet.
Susan’s absolutely right though. As a six-figure specialist I’m looking for at least +£20k this year, same as least year, or I’m quitting to work remotely for Americans. I work remotely for London anyway so no biggie. But I’m pretty sure British companies will pay me this simply because they have literally no choice of workers whatsoever. In specialist areas we had shortages long before Brexit and COVID, and now it’s a double! Not many specialists can be bothered with UK when $ is much stronger and visa there is same kerfuffle as one for UK. If you’re a specialist already in UK you can dictate m. Worst case those British companies will have to increase prices to pay for me but it’s a sacrifice I’m ready for to abide by your Brexit rules 🙂
Same thing John. Same thing.
If you have expert knowledge and experience then Brexit has made it a buyers market. I can pretty much name a price for my contracts and they have to pay it. No more competition from the EU.
I actually voted remain but I have to admit that Brexit has made me significantly better off.
What has this got to do with the crisis the NHS is in?
All you’re doing is boasting about your income – well fantastic stuff, but hardly useful in the current climate.
Amazing. Glad to hear your story. It’s been inspirational.
Bye
So, if WE the tax payer end up paying more for train drivers, or teachers, or postmen, does that mean we’re all going to rush into those professions?
Idiotic comment at its finest.
Nursing is not a luxury lifestyle and if you had one iota of understanding of this then your comment would not be so ignorant.
You should join the taliban! Go and get an education yourself Les, misogynist idiot! Most health care workers do go into the profession because they want to care and that’s exactly why they’re exploited! It’s not and easy decision to take strike action for any nurse, paramedic or doctor! What would you do without them? Hope you never need their kindness and expertise. What do you do? Yeah, thought so!
Your talking shite
‘Easy, cushy job?’
Do you nurse? Evidently not, as you would not be writing such words if you did.
I dare you to come and work a shift in A&E – whilst you run resus, having to administer life saving drugs to stroke patients, perform CPR on the man who has just gone into cardiac arrest, whilst trying to console his distraught wife who is watching on or arrange for the air ambulance to come as your trying to keep a lady alive long enough to survive the heart attack she is having and desperately needs a stent for.
All whilst having more patient arrive in an ambulance needing a resus bed, having to make the difficult decision of who to step down in order to accommodate the next patient.
Come on, I dare you.
They won’t. They are nothing more than a red rag sniffing coward, who is all talk on the internet, but wouldn’t dare say it to a nurse/HCA’s face.
It would be more effective and certainly more poignant if only one nurse on her own time stood outside the hospital with a placard while all the nurses on hospital time remained on duty. It would win the hearts of the population. But of course unions are not interested in winning hearts. They are interested only in bringing down the Tory government.
They did even more: they talked about staff shortages and bad pay while ALL of them kept working. How many hearts did that won?
Did anyone read the article?
The nurses on the picket line were from other trusts, not the IOW Trust.
We never met the threshold to strike – so our nurses are not striking.
However, the nurses that deal with the worst of it are not earning £30-45K – try £27K and that’s not what they take home.
As for one nurse only striking – what will that show? Strength in numbers and all that.
Until any of you work in the conditions nurses and other healthcare staff do, I’d keep your judgemental comments to yourselves.
Could you please let us know what the pay scales are then?
Band 5 starts at £27K – these are your nurses on the ward or in A&E or out in the community.
Band 6 starts at £33K – these are your deputies
Band 7 starts at £41K – these are your ward sisters or specialist nurses
Band 8 starts at £48K – these are your matrons
The nurses you’re angry at are the ones on the higher pay scales – not the ones on the lower who are often walked all over.
NHS, full of management that are earning more than any nurses. Pushing pens, getting no where near patients.
I know some in the mental health department are earning, or taking vast sums, and do so very little and have the audacity to boast about how little they do. Fact.
Not saying all nurses are like this, but I know many are and many more take sick days when they are not ill, knowing no-one dare question them so never any comebacks no matter how often they abuse the rules. FACT
Vast sums? The people you know must work in the private sector then – because I can assure you that NHS nurses do not take home vast sums of money.
Perhaps certain areas of the NHS are easier to work in than others, but I think the current issue is around the Emergency and acute sectors of the NHS.
Why are you just bashing nurses for sick days? Sick days are paid for by the government – I’m sure many workers in many professions do this. Why is the focus on sick days, assuming that it’s taken wrongly? With the stress they’re under and the amount of hours they work, who’s to say they genuinely are not sick?
So many of you fixate on issues that aren’t the main focus. It’s ridiculous.
What do you actually know Les? Not much mate!
What you with so much knowledge doesn’t know that already! Sad sad sad people on here
I have been my mother’s full time carer for 10 years now, 24/7. I get carer’s allowance of £67 a week, in other words less than a pound an hour. Let’s see them live off that.
It’s sickening that those who have to care for their relatives are paid so little. But, please don’t use that against those who are working and looking after those that do not have family to look after them.
If your Mum ever had to have a hospital stay I’m hopeful that you would be grateful for the staff that were looking after her for you, by doing the things that you cannot.
You’re attacking nurses who are trying to advocate to make a change, rather than placing your anger at the doors of the government who are the ones who have put so many people in poverty.
£27K is the starting salary for a newly qualified nurse!
So you are saying that only newly qualified nurses are dealing with the worst of it! I may be wrong but those on the picket lines didn’t look like they have just qualified.
No, I don’t think that is what was being said.
All healthcare staff are affected one way or another, regardless of their salary.
Doesn’t it actually occur to anyone that those able to stand on picket lines have been allowed because the team they’re in are making sure their patients aren’t being left without care? People don’t to just walk out of wards Willy nilly that’s why it’s a caring profession you dumb people! I honestly wonder if any of you have a decent working brain between you! Nhs workers never go on strike so it must be bad to see it now. When you know what it’s like thdn comment
Totally agreed. I bet half this sorry lot don’t actually leave their sad little hovels! Easy to comment from behind twitching curtains!
I would like £27 k six weeks holiday, sick pay and a pension.
If it’s such a great incentive then become a nurse? That’s how we fix staff shortages, by offering people what they like. If you do think it’s enough then go, don’t be held back my motion that men cannot be nurses, you too can do it!
Why are so many people attacking nurses?
If you want a salary of £27K, a workplace pension and 28 days holiday then look for a job that will offer you that. Don’t come with your pitchforks to the ones that do have that. No one chooses to work for the NHS because of the pay or the pension – they do it because they want to help.
Who’s to say that by the time anyone reaches pensionable age that our workplace pensions will be worth anything, anyway!
Get a job then you many old git!
Is it about time patients in hospital went on strike against the overpaid lazy staff.
And how would they do that, Rob?
Refuse treatment?
Walk out?
Hunger strike?
Refuse to pay for their treatment?
Didn’t really think that one through, did you, Robbie?
If you’ve had dealings with lazy staff, then report them to the right people – don’t tarnish everyone with the same brush.
Everyone knows that all workplaces have employees that take the mick and do the bare minimum, but that doesn’t mean everyone is the same. There are a lot of nurses that go above and beyond and I’m sure if you were ever in need of their help you would be humbled by their actions.
Carers are not qualified to:
Grade and treat complex pressure wounds.
Administer Controlled Drugs.
Conduct complex assessments, such as around Capacity
Deal with PIC lines/PEGs
The list goes on… So you pay for professional experience & knowledge.
Home care workers are paid by private companies, so go take up your gripe with them (a ridiculous comparison).
Can someone tell me what am I paying for with Bob Seeley? I’d rather my taxes are spent on X number of Nurses than soon-to-be TWO MPs on this Island.
Solidarity with the Nurses!
.
Some of your comments are sickening!
Nurses aren’t striking because they expect more money, or because they refuse to do their jobs if they’re not paid more – the majority of nurses are striking to highlight that something needs to change. Patient safety is compromised all the time – on a 28 bedded ward you should have at least 6 nurses on duty – most of the time it’s 2! That means 14 patients lives are in the hands of one nurse at one time – all with different needs/medical conditions, some are acutely unwell, others are in need of mobility assistance, others with dementia, personal care – on top of all the paperwork that is now expected. I’d like those complaining to take a shift and see how easy it is!
Whatever the pros and cons of their claims, Solent NHS Trust Nurses work in schools and the community and it is shameful for them to picket St Mary’s Hospital, not their place of work. It’s quite possible that the Midlands Foundation Trust counselling services are on site but that’s not the sort of nursing that has been highlighted by the RCN or immediately springs to mind.
We’re privileged here to have a magnificent nursing workforce, who would doubtless welcome a substantial pay rise, but have still chosen to continue working only to have their professionalism sullied by a few scruffy employees of mainland contractors milling around the hospital entrance.
If people read the news feed before going off on one they’d know that. Always ready to slate, guilty before a trial etc
Perhaps so.
But does it occur to you that maybe there were nurses from our trust that wanted to strike, but couldn’t because the majority didn’t meet the ballot requirements?
So perhaps, these nurses are doing it for the ones that cannot due to legality.
Let’s not slate everyone. There will always be diverse opinions on strike action within the NHS, but that just proves that it’s not an easy decision to make. Nurses last tool strike action over 50 years ago, so foe this to go ahead nows, shows how quickly the NHS is crumbling. But also, its not just nurses, it’s Dr’s and paramedics, they are also striking to highlight pay and patient safety. So it’s not a greed issue.
I’m quite certain that the pickets will claim, as a self defence, that they are doing it for all those nurses that are still working.
I however have a far more complimentary view of IW nurses, I believe them to intelligent and quite capable of representing themselves, whichever way they choose, rather than having some self appointed, unrepresentative, spokesman claiming to speak for them.
There are currently 47,500 nursing vacancies within the NHS across the country – that is a staggering amount. The question is why are there so many, but the government know why.
Before 2016 you were supported to train to be a nurse, your tuition fees were paid for in lieu of nursing students working for free during their placements over the course of 3 years.
Now, they have to pay – which ends them up in £70K worth of debt. Many nursing students were ‘mature’ students with a house and a family – since they’ve taken sway the support people can no longer afford to train – you’re entitled to £8K a year to help with living costs – that’s no where near enough. Not if you have a house and a family to support.
But one of the many issues is that more and more nurses are retiring, and to replace those that are leaving – we need the next fresh batch of nurses to start their careers. But, there has been a massive decrease in the uptake of nursing, for the reason I’ve just stated – among others, of course.
We rely on international nurses, but since Brexit it’s become harder to recruit them over.
The NHS is failing rapidly and whilst many may say that striking is not the answer, you’re not wrong, but, if no one puts their foot down, how will change ever be made?
Nurses are too valuable to strike, but not valuable enough for a pay rise, apparently.
Nurses are responsible for a lot, such as;
Dressing wounds – but having the knowledge of which dressing to use to heal the type of wound one may have.
Assessing, grading and treating pressure areas.
Cannulate, administer IVs – these have to be double checked by another nurse – when there’s only two of you on the ward that makes it very difficult, especially with the volume of IVs you would need to do for the number of patients.
Take observations, chart them, assess them, escalate when you can see your patient deteriorating.
Arrange discharges
Speak to NOK
Update care plans
Assist with falls/confused/wandering/aggressive patients.
Transfer/admit/discharge patients.
The list is endless.
And that list is just for a general ward nurse – that doesn’t account for nurses in higher bands that have extra responsibility, or for nurses that work in other departments where their responsibilities will be different.
Or for the work advanced nurses do – like responding to adult emergencies, cardiac arrests – leading the Emergency, knowing what drugs to give, deciding on whether or not an admission to ITU is appropriate.
Or whilst we’re on that subject – the work the ITU nurses do – they never leave their patients side. They titrate their medications when their observations change slightly, they need to know all sorts of clinical knowledge.
The truth is no one knows the extent of someone’s job until they do it themselves.
They should all be fkn sacked for keeping quiet!!
Get a life and a brain Guss. You’re obviously incapable of any empathy so there is something wrong with you. Might need a nurse in the future! Haha!!! Pxxxxk