UK Politics Thread (Part 3)

Yes, but not nearly as much as he hopes it will, I think. Burnout is real.

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My initial reaction to that is that it sounds great , and some accountability is long overdue , but just how much would they expect (realistically) to recoup , and would the cost of recovering the money be so great as to be worth the effort ?

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Wouldn’t it be better to hire more nurses than paying overtime to already overworked nurses?

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They spent decades pursuing people over non-payment of Poll tax. Obviously that only affected the little people.

Pursuing wholesale government fraud would set a precedent and discourage others from trying it. This should have been standard for decades.

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Yes, but that would involve actually paying all nurses a competitive wage.

Haven’t read the details but I assume it’s meant to be a short-term measure to help boost capacity while they bring in more staff.

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And bring common sense and logic into politics?

How Dare You Greta GIF

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There will be a significant number who are currently agency workers but where else do they think they will get them from? There’s lots of former NHS workers now in various EU countries. Lots now in Australia. How many will be up for another move without serious incentives? These are often people with families who probably don’t want to be uprooted again.

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Hence why I think this proposal has been brought up - any long-term fix whether by bringing people from abroad, training new staff or finding a way to reduce the number of nurses leaving each year is unlikely to be either deliverable or have an impact that close to taking office.

If they can claw back some of the nurses working through agencies, then that would probably see some money saved and which can be used elsewhere?

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Entirely. There is a need for agency nurses but it was meant to cover for illness - for example if you have a flu outbreak that takes a ward out. It gradually changed so that it was supplying permanent staff.

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Are you a doctor or nurse? Married to one? Have them as friends? You speak as if you’re knowledgable of them all which is quite a position in which to be.

My wife is a nurse and it is not unreasonable to say that some staff will volunteer for overtime if offered, It gets more difficult if they have other responsibilities: family or other caring duties for example. Younger nurses will be less likely to have these responsibilities and will probably be glad of the extra income.

@redalways comment about burnout is essential, though. During the most intensive periods of the Covid crisis the only way some medical staff could get time off is if they were unwell themselves. I work in the health sector but not on the patient facing side and I was struggling to get time off even with German employment protection. In the UK that hasn’t let up. I have a friend who works in A&E as a nurse and he hasn’t been able to take a family holiday since 2019.

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Absolutely but the vacancy list for the NHS is massive at over 40,000. I’d also guess most nurses are probably doing a heap of overtime already. Both through out if need of patients but also to top up pitiful wages.

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We established an independent Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2007 to tackle public sector corruptions. They identified many massive cases. Most of the money was sent to overseas and almost nothing was recovered. Most of the accused also got free due to their connections with political bigwigs.

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I suspect there’s more to this story than meets the eye though. No time off in 4 years? Doubtful….

Time off, yes, but no family holiday. His wife is also a nurse. It’s very difficult for them both to get significant time off at the same time. This is not that unusual. In part, it is why my wife went into paediatric nursing because there is much less on when the schools are on holiday.

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What does the countries’ employment law state?

Well they both work on the Wirral and the law says that the employer can decline any particular request and insist that it is taken at others. The only requirement is that they are still entitled to the legally entitled period. Is it any wonder that people leave the profession? Many have had enough.

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Odd as my cousin had 2 weeks off in summer and is a doctor working in an AE dept. He’s married to a nurse who works in the same department. Hence my question. They went to Florida which is wrong but still managed 2 weeks together working for the NHS front end.