Letters
We welcome all readers’ letters, but reserve the right to edit them or withhold names and addresses. Please email: [email protected]
Please keep letters to a maximum of 150 words, and include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number
We must stand in solidarity and fight for our rights to get a better pay deal Following health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rejection of the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendations to give all nurses a 1 per cent pay rise in 2014/15, nearly 330,000 nurses will miss out on the pay award (News April 30). It will be given only to nurses at the top of their pay bands. I will be retiring in a couple of years and have just realised that I will lose even more money than I thought. The pay rise for those on the top of their band is nonpensionable and will not be added to my final salary for calculating my pension. This will mean that I face a further pay cut, even after retiring. So, now I have the prospect of a higher retirement age, a reducing state pension and work pension, and paying more each year for the privilege. When will nurses stand up for themselves? Surely they can see that a nursing shortage means that patients are suffering. Unfairly blamed by MPs for their mistakes, fewer and fewer people will want to stay in nursing. As I hear time and time again, including from female nurses, nursing is a predominantly female workforce, so they will not fight for fair pay. I hope this will be not be the case.
Why is the figure so low? Is it because nurses are weary and fed up, too busy with work demands and financial pressures? Perhaps they feel that they are fighting a losing battle, suspecting that pay decisions have already been made and there will be no change of heart. I sincerely hope that morale is not so low that we have lost our voice. Eva Trkulja, by email
Malcolm Harrison, Derby
IS MORALE AMONG NURSES SO LOW THAT WE HAVE LOST OUR VOICE? I was happy to respond to the call to sign Nursing Standard’s e-petition (tinyurl.com/pay-petition) urging the government to reconsider its decision to withhold the 1 per cent annual pay rise next year to nurses who are due to receive incremental pay rises (News April 9, 23 and 30). But I was disappointed to find that, out of our 670,000-strong nursing workforce, there are only 2,426 signatures so far. 34 may 7 :: vol 28 no 36 :: 2014
GOVERNMENT TINKERING WITH AFC WILL NOT RESOLVE NHS PAY CRISIS Your readers panel (reflections April 30) was asked whether nurses should sacrifice incremental payments to give every NHS nurse in England a 1 per cent rise. The answer from the four panel members was a resounding no, and I should imagine this is representative of the nursing workforce at large. As patient safety adviser Jane Brown says: ‘The incremental payments are an agreed part of Agenda for Change and are separate to annual pay rises.’
The Agenda for Change (AfC) pay arrangements should not be dismantled or tinkered with through government penny-pinching. It took a great deal of work to get AfC up and running and to ensure that it was a fair system for nurses, recognising the work we do and rewarding us appropriately for it. The government wants to drive down public-sector pay and to introduce local pay arrangements. It is hard enough for us to live on the existing pay scales. Nursing will become a most unattractive profession if the pay rates are driven down further. Helen Evans, by email
SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER TREATMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH MS Two new medicines for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have recently been approved for use on the NHS, and two more will hopefully follow within the next year, taking the total to 11. It is an exciting, unprecedented time, but people with MS continue to
NURSING STANDARD
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face significant difficulties accessing the treatments they need, the information to decide what is right for them, and the MS specialists who can help. Research by the MS Society last year found 60 per cent of people with MS are not taking a medicine that can alter the course of the condition, despite being eligible for them, and that access to these drugs improves vastly with access to a neurologist, nurse or good information. There are licensed medicines that can transform people’s lives but they are out of reach for many. That is why the MS Society has launched the Treat Me Right campaign. Please add your support at www.treatmerightms.org.uk. Michelle Mitchell, chief executive, MS Society
DEBRISOFT IS A WOUND DEBRIDEMENT PRODUCT, NOT A WOUND DRESSING In your April 2 edition (News) you highlighted the recent publication of NICE guidance on the Debrisoft monofilament debridement pad, which has the potential to save the NHS about £15 million a year. We are delighted that you are sharing this new development with your readers. However, we need to point out an error in the text that referred to Debrisoft as ‘a new wound treatment dressing’. Debrisoft is actually a wound debridement product and not a dressing, thus it is not left in-situ on the wound as a dressing would be. Debrisoft is used to debride the wound of devitalised tissue and debris at dressing change intervals, to prepare the wound for healing. If your readers are interested in learning more about Debrisoft, they should go to http://www. activahealthcare.co.uk/debrisoft Alex Browning, senior product manager for wound care, Activa Healthcare
HELP ME FIND THE OWNER OF A LOST NURSING REGISTRATION BADGE Several years ago, my nurse partner found a silver nursing registration badge in the car park of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. She brought it home intending to try to find the owner but the badge was
NURSING STANDARD
put away and forgotten about until we had a recent clear out. The badge is silver metal, in the shape of a rose, with a circular blue enamel ring with the words ‘The General Nursing Council for England & Wales’. In the centre is a figure in a robe surrounded by a wreath of leaves. There is a registration number on the back that reads: SRN 9526425. If this badge is yours, or you know the owner or their family, please email me at [email protected] Lee Roberts, by email
SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION ON FRANCIS CYRIL MASON (1907-99) I am researching my family tree and would appreciate some help. I am looking to find more information about my uncle, Francis Cyril Mason, who was a nurse. He was born in February 1907. I would like to know when and where he qualified as a nurse. I know he was in the army and that he served in India. He married a Violet Bedford in India in 1927/28, later married a Joan Deeley in 1946 and died in 1999. I believe he worked in hospitals in Wales and England, and was also the senior nurse for Accles & Pollock, the steel tubing company based in Oldbury in the West Midlands. If you have any information, please email me at [email protected] David Brookes, by email
SET 472 FROM THE ROYAL LONDON IS HOLDING A REUNION IN OCTOBER We are organising a reunion of set 472 from the Royal London Hospital on Saturday October 11 to mark 33 years since the start of our training. The plan is to meet in the Whitechapel area of east London over lunchtime – venue and times to be confirmed. Please contact us for further details: Ruth Groom (née Garner) at [email protected] and Sarah Rogers (née Tindall) at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you. Ruth Groom and Sarah Rogers, by email
TWEETS OF THE WEEK Nursing is not defined by tidy uniforms or tidy minds – it is the ability to reach out and give comfort and care to those who need it... @Bartontd
Pt today said nursing care faultless – so lovely 2 get feedback that starting 2 ask 4 it. Good/bad/indiff is all important @acorns47
If you’re a nurse watching #panorama you’ll be angry & upset, but also pls be proud of the excellent care nurses can & do provide every day. @wlasinclair
“spend money wisely in #NHS” says Hunt #marrshow Like adding layers of bureaucracy, sacking nurses & paying private companies for temps? @Sharonavraham
Can you imagine doctors being told they must be less educated to ensure they’re compassionate. it would never happen @archangelolill
When I changed from general to psychiatric nursing I was shocked about the lack of knowledge in recognising physical health problems. @nurse_w_glasses
Worried that bureaucracy could build around nurse staffing when all thats really required is to listen to your Chief Nurse/Nursing Leaders. @BCHBoss
Follow Nursing Standard @NScomment and join the #NScomment chat on Thursdays at 12.30pm may 7 :: vol 28 no 36 :: 2014 35
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We welcome all readers’ letters, but reserve the right to edit them or withhold names and addresses. Please email: [email protected]
Please keep letters to a maximum of 150 words, and include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number
We must stand in solidarity and fight for our rights to get a better pay deal Following health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rejection of the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendations to give all nurses a 1 per cent pay rise in 2014/15, nearly 330,000 nurses will miss out on the pay award (News April 30). It will be given only to nurses at the top of their pay bands. I will be retiring in a couple of years and have just realised that I will lose even more money than I thought. The pay rise for those on the top of their band is nonpensionable and will not be added to my final salary for calculating my pension. This will mean that I face a further pay cut, even after retiring. So, now I have the prospect of a higher retirement age, a reducing state pension and work pension, and paying more each year for the privilege. When will nurses stand up for themselves? Surely they can see that a nursing shortage means that patients are suffering. Unfairly blamed by MPs for their mistakes, fewer and fewer people will want to stay in nursing. As I hear time and time again, including from female nurses, nursing is a predominantly female workforce, so they will not fight for fair pay. I hope this will be not be the case.
Why is the figure so low? Is it because nurses are weary and fed up, too busy with work demands and financial pressures? Perhaps they feel that they are fighting a losing battle, suspecting that pay decisions have already been made and there will be no change of heart. I sincerely hope that morale is not so low that we have lost our voice. Eva Trkulja, by email
Malcolm Harrison, Derby
IS MORALE AMONG NURSES SO LOW THAT WE HAVE LOST OUR VOICE? I was happy to respond to the call to sign Nursing Standard’s e-petition (tinyurl.com/pay-petition) urging the government to reconsider its decision to withhold the 1 per cent annual pay rise next year to nurses who are due to receive incremental pay rises (News April 9, 23 and 30). But I was disappointed to find that, out of our 670,000-strong nursing workforce, there are only 2,426 signatures so far. 34 may 7 :: vol 28 no 36 :: 2014
GOVERNMENT TINKERING WITH AFC WILL NOT RESOLVE NHS PAY CRISIS Your readers panel (reflections April 30) was asked whether nurses should sacrifice incremental payments to give every NHS nurse in England a 1 per cent rise. The answer from the four panel members was a resounding no, and I should imagine this is representative of the nursing workforce at large. As patient safety adviser Jane Brown says: ‘The incremental payments are an agreed part of Agenda for Change and are separate to annual pay rises.’
The Agenda for Change (AfC) pay arrangements should not be dismantled or tinkered with through government penny-pinching. It took a great deal of work to get AfC up and running and to ensure that it was a fair system for nurses, recognising the work we do and rewarding us appropriately for it. The government wants to drive down public-sector pay and to introduce local pay arrangements. It is hard enough for us to live on the existing pay scales. Nursing will become a most unattractive profession if the pay rates are driven down further. Helen Evans, by email
SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER TREATMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH MS Two new medicines for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have recently been approved for use on the NHS, and two more will hopefully follow within the next year, taking the total to 11. It is an exciting, unprecedented time, but people with MS continue to
NURSING STANDARD
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 19, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. 02/05/2014 Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
034-035w36.indd 34
15:16
face significant difficulties accessing the treatments they need, the information to decide what is right for them, and the MS specialists who can help. Research by the MS Society last year found 60 per cent of people with MS are not taking a medicine that can alter the course of the condition, despite being eligible for them, and that access to these drugs improves vastly with access to a neurologist, nurse or good information. There are licensed medicines that can transform people’s lives but they are out of reach for many. That is why the MS Society has launched the Treat Me Right campaign. Please add your support at www.treatmerightms.org.uk. Michelle Mitchell, chief executive, MS Society
DEBRISOFT IS A WOUND DEBRIDEMENT PRODUCT, NOT A WOUND DRESSING In your April 2 edition (News) you highlighted the recent publication of NICE guidance on the Debrisoft monofilament debridement pad, which has the potential to save the NHS about £15 million a year. We are delighted that you are sharing this new development with your readers. However, we need to point out an error in the text that referred to Debrisoft as ‘a new wound treatment dressing’. Debrisoft is actually a wound debridement product and not a dressing, thus it is not left in-situ on the wound as a dressing would be. Debrisoft is used to debride the wound of devitalised tissue and debris at dressing change intervals, to prepare the wound for healing. If your readers are interested in learning more about Debrisoft, they should go to http://www. activahealthcare.co.uk/debrisoft Alex Browning, senior product manager for wound care, Activa Healthcare
HELP ME FIND THE OWNER OF A LOST NURSING REGISTRATION BADGE Several years ago, my nurse partner found a silver nursing registration badge in the car park of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. She brought it home intending to try to find the owner but the badge was
NURSING STANDARD
put away and forgotten about until we had a recent clear out. The badge is silver metal, in the shape of a rose, with a circular blue enamel ring with the words ‘The General Nursing Council for England & Wales’. In the centre is a figure in a robe surrounded by a wreath of leaves. There is a registration number on the back that reads: SRN 9526425. If this badge is yours, or you know the owner or their family, please email me at [email protected] Lee Roberts, by email
SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION ON FRANCIS CYRIL MASON (1907-99) I am researching my family tree and would appreciate some help. I am looking to find more information about my uncle, Francis Cyril Mason, who was a nurse. He was born in February 1907. I would like to know when and where he qualified as a nurse. I know he was in the army and that he served in India. He married a Violet Bedford in India in 1927/28, later married a Joan Deeley in 1946 and died in 1999. I believe he worked in hospitals in Wales and England, and was also the senior nurse for Accles & Pollock, the steel tubing company based in Oldbury in the West Midlands. If you have any information, please email me at [email protected] David Brookes, by email
SET 472 FROM THE ROYAL LONDON IS HOLDING A REUNION IN OCTOBER We are organising a reunion of set 472 from the Royal London Hospital on Saturday October 11 to mark 33 years since the start of our training. The plan is to meet in the Whitechapel area of east London over lunchtime – venue and times to be confirmed. Please contact us for further details: Ruth Groom (née Garner) at [email protected] and Sarah Rogers (née Tindall) at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you. Ruth Groom and Sarah Rogers, by email
TWEETS OF THE WEEK Nursing is not defined by tidy uniforms or tidy minds – it is the ability to reach out and give comfort and care to those who need it... @Bartontd
Pt today said nursing care faultless – so lovely 2 get feedback that starting 2 ask 4 it. Good/bad/indiff is all important @acorns47
If you’re a nurse watching #panorama you’ll be angry & upset, but also pls be proud of the excellent care nurses can & do provide every day. @wlasinclair
“spend money wisely in #NHS” says Hunt #marrshow Like adding layers of bureaucracy, sacking nurses & paying private companies for temps? @Sharonavraham
Can you imagine doctors being told they must be less educated to ensure they’re compassionate. it would never happen @archangelolill
When I changed from general to psychiatric nursing I was shocked about the lack of knowledge in recognising physical health problems. @nurse_w_glasses
Worried that bureaucracy could build around nurse staffing when all thats really required is to listen to your Chief Nurse/Nursing Leaders. @BCHBoss
Follow Nursing Standard @NScomment and join the #NScomment chat on Thursdays at 12.30pm may 7 :: vol 28 no 36 :: 2014 35
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