As someone who has spent alot of time in hospitals in recent years in my opinion alot (not all) of younger nurses are lazy and uncaring.

I left 4/5 years ago for the private sector, I am paid roughly double what I earned in the public sector for an easier job with less stress and less responsibility. Where the sickness rate is roughly the same. Not that that's relevant anyway.
Why are they underpaid? Because the majority were on minimum wage or just above after actually having their wages reduced after Agenda for Change. But that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was them being under resourced and under valued, this naturally affected motivation and efficiency.
The notion they could just leave is utterly ridiculous and belongs in Sal's Real World.

Not that elements of the media have contributed to this over 30 years or more, so that swathes of the population (and we see some here) just accept the lie because it suits them.

Having been a patient a three or four times in the last half-dozen years, I have to say that, in my experience, ALL the staff I have encountered have been caring, competent and efficient.
Locations were Manchester, Halifax and Paddington.

But then, I don't act the @rse telling them their job.

My father would not have lived into the 1960s were it not for the NHS. They diagnosed stomach cancer and operated – incredibly radical and risky surgery for the time, removing half his stomach. Coming from a tiny rural Cornish background, his family would quite simply not have had the money for such treatment in the days before the NHS.

In the 1970s, the NHS diagnosed the pernicious anaemia that can set in as a result of that sort of surgery. If they hadn't, the best-case scenario was that he would have lost the use of his legs. He will continue to receive six-weekly injections for the rest of his life to control this.

In the 1980s, they performed major surgery to (in effect) tidy up his insides and sort out an issue with his bile duct that was a direct result of the original, life-saving surgery, but which had been causing increasing bilious attacks.

In the 1990s, he had stents inserted to prevent a heart attack.

A couple of weeks ago, they removed a cataract from one eye (managing to get him in just as such surgery is being rationed).

He has never had anything but praise and thanks for the NHS and what it has done for him – and that includes for all the staff that have looked after him over the years. The last time I talked to him, he was intending to write to the trust to thank them for making the cataract surgery so pain free and straightforward, with results that he could see within days.

He continues not simply to be alive – but to be active as a direct result of the NHS and its remarkable and dedicated staff.

And that is without mentioning the care my mother received at the beginning of the 1970s, when she had to have a hysterectomy (and credit also to the local authority, who ensured she had visits from a home help while she was recovering). Or my father's father, who lived to a ripe old age as a direct result of care he received from the NHS in middle age.

Of course the system is not perfect – there is not a system in the world that is.

And 100% of all staff will be perfect – 100% of staff will never be perfect in any organisation or company anywhere in the world.

But even my conservative and Conservative father would say, from almost a lifetime of experience, in many parts of the country, that to suggest that there is something like universal bad service is a load of BS.

Unions, are they evil?
No, they are not evil. It's a very stupid question. If the only thing you've got available to sell is your labour or brains, then you are letting down your own personal PLC and your shareholders such as your family etc, by not getting the best deal possible, under whatever circumstances pertain at the time. It only stands to reason that the smart way to achieve this is collectively. The top union by far is the legal profession, followed by the 1st division club of senior civil servants, followed by the BMA. Very effective, united and hardly a bunch of trotskyist militants.
People should really try to see beyond the constant black propaganda put out by the media. The only newspaper that gets anywhere near the truth is the FT.
The best businesses and business people aren't against unions, they are for whatever aids growth and profit and having a committed, happy workforce is a good start in achieving this.

Robin Day used to say that only two UK newspapers told the truthFinancial Times[/i, which has to tell the truth for the business class, and the [iMorning Star[/i, which tells the truth for the workers".

But otherwise –

Well I sincerely hope that thos who voted this shower into power and can't afford to pay healthcare insurance for ALL eventualities are ready for the shock because that will be what we return to. There is no doubt in my mind that we will see more cases of people dying because they simply cannot afford the treatment required.

well said

Interesting - perhaps you can explain why sickness in the union dominated public sector is much higher than in the private sector?

Maybe you could also explain what went on with the rail franchise fiasco - was that not caused by the good old public sector?

Also the culture of lying within the police - two examples only this week - are the police public servants?

The most efficient car plant in the UK has no union influence - perhaps the two things may be related?

BBC handing out payments so its stars can avoid tax - another example of public sector behaviour

If you think News International is the only news organisation who operated in an unethical manner you are deluded.

In Germany the unions know their position - the companies rule the roost.

You holding out the public sector as a bastion of morality is yet another laughable post of yours - your myopic views on some subjects do you no favours.

There are differences in the types of jobs between the two sectors and some sectors have higher likelihoods of sickness than others.
On average, women have more sickness absence than men and the public sector employs a higher proportion of female workers.
The sickness rates only counts someone as sick if they work fewer hours than contracted for. It would exclude someone who is sick and makes up for the lost hours at a later point in the week. It is possible that individuals in smaller workforces are under more pressure to make up any lost hours and these workforces are more prominent in the private sector.
Individuals within the private sector are also more likely to not be paid for a spell of sickness than individuals within the public sector.


No. It was caused by government incompetence in the awarding of a private contract.


I'm unsure which examples you're referring to.


I do wish you'd stop making things up. The most efficient car plant in Europe is represented by Unite.


Are you now saying that public sector bodies shouldn't adopt private sector practices?


No, in Germany the unions and the employers work together with mutual respect.


Lol.

Stress perhaps? Not least because of ill-informed judgmental cretins jerking their little knees orgasmically everytime the likes of Murdoch or Dacre's rags tell them that public service workers are lazy, hopeless etc etc  and, of course 'don't live in the real world'.

I have a neighbour who's a teacher, who has been having to deal with a suicidal pupil probably with (inherited) bipolar. Not remotely stressful, obviously. Bet you have that all the time, don't you, dearie?

Met a trading standards officer on Friday who, with diminishing resources ('cos it's a waste of taxpayers' money, obviously) tries to catch and stop rogue traders who are ripping off elderly people for thousands of pounds. Who cares, eh? Bet a private company could do it so much better – and make a profit!

Probation officers dealing with difficult cases, resources slashed and trying to do the frontline stuff instead of the paperwork. No stress there, since the outcomes of their work are meaningless.

Social workers – villified by rabid media if anything goes wrong (even when that same cretinous right-wing media gets it wrong – as with the Baby P case

Actually, it was caused by people holding your cretinous political ideology

Well, that explains the Murdoch press then. And banks. And business. And ...

See? They were just behaving like the private sector they've all been told to behave like.



Indeed, we could add to the list the lies of Sal. Or did you pluck that factually incorrect comment out of the air in hope?



After being told by the government of the day to become more market-oriented and chase viewing figures, it's clearly just doing what others do.



I have never suggested it was. You will find, however, that the scale of criminality (because that is what is being discussed, not a lack of ethics) does seem to be concentrated, to a [igargantuan[/i degree, in one company and one company alone.

You can probably get reading and comprehension lessons; Sal, even at your time in life they might help you. Go private – you'll be helping someone make a profit.



Oh yes, those Krauts know how to tug their little forelocks etc.

This from Mr "Real World" himself is just hilarious.

Was in Birmingham yesterday and saw all the various stalls and marches,by far the largest demo was Stop the War , the Badger Cull protestors were all a diverse /strange bunch -some dressed in combat gear others looked like Greenham Common leftovers and quite a few older matriach types. However the union stalls were forlorn just manned by a couple of reps , no one looking at all the literature and massed piles of placards . The general gist of which seemed to be a call for a general strike.
When i finaaly saw a march either Unison ,Unite or PBS(?) the band and police outnumbered those taking part.
Even the Tories looked dissapointed at the indifference

Why the need for unions when we have politicians? After all, it was politicians who were the first to fight for an end to child labour, equal rights for women in the workplace, health and safety regulations in dangerous industries such as mining, the minimum wage, the right to fair representation at work, the right to paid maternity, paternity and adoptive leave etc. etc.

But seriously, it's depressingly obvious the only thing several contributors to this discussion know about unions is what they've been told. Perhaps they should educate themselves on the history of the labour movement in Britain (including its achievements and defeats) instead of witlessly regurgitating the same baseless, uncorroborated nonsense that's been passed about ever since the thirties and fourties when corporations realised they could achieve greater successes against organised labour using carefully crafted PR (or propaganda) than with gangs of thugs wielding blackjacks.

or maybe, just maybe, people can talk of their own experiences?

my experiences of Unions are, largely, positive, but when you get some local rep who has an agenda (and no f'ng brain) you can't make any progress.

maybe Mintball can tell us which part of the public sector usually vote, on mass, for strikes, and then get double time to work the weekend as they deliver a statutory duty?