{"id":16377,"date":"2018-09-26T16:47:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T15:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16377"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:12","slug":"labour-joyce-still-threat-health-visiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16377","title":{"rendered":"‘Eroded day by day’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The dire threat posed to health visiting in the UK has long been highlighted by Unite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and today (September 26) Unite delegate Joyce Still brought that message to the Labour Party conference.<\/p>\n

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Joyce, a trained nurse who has worked as a midwife and now is a health visitor in a Sure Start children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centre, said that, when she first started, she really enjoyed her job.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to finish my working week,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy profession health visiting remains under severe threat and the service we are now able to provide is being eroded day by day.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe face continual cuts, lack of resources, privatisation and overwork,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

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Joyce told of health visitors who have to complete electronic reports in their own spare time just to keep up, who are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunder constant pressure to meet unrealistic targets and meet key performance indicators\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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She spoke of the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfear culture in the NHS\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in which \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba vicious cycle of pressure\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 has led to ill health among health visitors, with many going off with work related stress.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have seen a staggering 20 per cent drop in health visitor numbers since 2015,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOther professions are faring no better — pathology and pharmacy, mental health nurses, ambulances, estates and cleaners, NHS staff are all facing cuts and further privatisation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Joyce denounced private companies such as Virgin Care which are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhoovering up services\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI did not become a nurse to line tax avoiders\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pockets and make profits for private company shareholders,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she told conference. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI went into nursing because I wanted to work in a caring profession.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about shareholders but I do care about helping the lady whose daughter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disability living allowance has been cut because she now only has 10 fits per night rather than 20.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joynce explained how across the NHS unions like Unite are fighting back for the services they deliver.<\/p>\n

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But she added the only real solution is \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba radical socialist government led by our Leader Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all work together and make that happen,” she said to applause.<\/p>\n

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

The dire threat posed to health visiting in the UK has long been highlighted by Unite \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and today (September 26) Unite delegate Joyce Still brought that message to the Labour Party conference.   Joyce, a trained nurse who has worked as a midwife and now is a health visitor in a Sure Start children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[77,872],"wps_subtitle":"Unite's Joyce Still tells of threats to health visiting services","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16377"}],"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=16377"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25833,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16377\/revisions\/25833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}