{"id":14374,"date":"2018-01-15T16:04:05","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14374"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:12","slug":"pushed-breaking-pointpittance-paid-nhs-staff-demand-govt-acts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14374","title":{"rendered":"Pushed to breaking point"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has joined forces with other health unions to appeal to Jeremy Hunt to provide emergency NHS funding.<\/p>\n

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In an unprecedented move, the leaders of 12 trade unions sent a joint letter urging the health secretary to give the embattled health service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c currently suffering its worst winter ever<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a life-saving cash injection.<\/p>\n

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The letter highlighted \u00e2\u20ac\u015byears of cuts to services and wages, and damaging staff shortages\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 as the reason for the current \u00e2\u20ac\u015bacute winter health crisis\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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The leaders said the extra \u00c2\u01411.6bn allocated in November\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Budget<\/a> is not \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnearly enough\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and that the only reason the NHS is still running is because of the dedication of its more than one million staff.<\/p>\n

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The letter states that staff are working in \u00e2\u20ac\u015ban overstretched service, for declining wages and under incredibly difficult conditions\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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The letter, on behalf of NHS<\/a> staff, was signed by Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, TUC leader Frances O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady, Unison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dave Prentis and GMB head Tim Roache, as well as leaders from eight other health unions.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPatients are stranded, treated, and sometimes dying on trolleys in corridors because wards are so overcrowded. Ambulances are queuing outside hospitals because crews are unable to hand over patients to under pressure emergency staff,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the letter to Hunt states.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the sad thing is this crisis isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a one off. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the direct impact of decisions from your department and by your government\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Stop and listen to the people that know the NHS best. Who see with their own eyes every day how bad things have got. Fund it better and do so now, for all our sakes.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Undergrads asked to help <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And the situation is now so critical that undergraduate medical students are being asked to volunteer in hospitals.<\/p>\n

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Despite not having qualified as doctors, medical students are being urged to volunteer in struggling A&E units because of staffing shortages.<\/p>\n

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Keele University medical school head, Dr Andrew Hassell, wrote to fourth and fifth year students asking them to help tackle the NHS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnational crisis\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 by volunteering at local hospitals and GP surgeries, emails obtained by the Guardian<\/em><\/a> show.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for health, Sarah Carpenter, said the fact that unqualified medical students are being asked to volunteer on wards to alleviate the crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunderscores the need for the intervention by Unite and the other NHS trade unions\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHeaping this kind of pressure on undergraduate students isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fair to them or the public,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is no exaggeration to call this an emergency that is severely compromising patient care. The NHS is understaffed and under-resourced and the staff who are keeping it running in the face of enormous challenges are being pushed to breaking point for a pittance.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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She added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere can no more excuses or platitudes from government. It must provide urgently needed funds before this crisis become irreversible.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has joined forces with other health unions to appeal to Jeremy Hunt to provide emergency NHS funding.   In an unprecedented move, the leaders of 12 trade unions sent a joint letter urging the health secretary to give the embattled health service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c currently suffering its worst winter ever \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a life-saving cash injection. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[29,63,44],"wps_subtitle":"Pittance-paid NHS staff demand govt acts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26481,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions\/26481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}