[coconut2456]

(Original post by DynamicSyngery)
Doctors stop working on bank holidays? I bloody well hope they don't bunk off to watch the Olympics at least...

Well yeah...though not all of them obviously. I'm also pretty sure that's not what he was suggesting about the Olympics...

[moonkatt]

(Original post by KingGoonIan)
I never said HCAs should be paid the same as doctors; I was saying that HCAs aren't striking about their wage freezes and cuts that have affected them despite them working extremely hard and not earning half what doctors earn.

First of all, the majority of HCA's are paid under 20k pa, therefore are not part of the cost of living wage freeze unlike those on over 20k in the NHS, but they are facing the same attack on their pension scheme that everyone else is.

Secondly, Unison, which a lot of HCA's are members of held a national strike last November which pensions was one of the issues they were striking over.

I'm in support of this action, as a nurse my pension is facing the same attacks from this government, a pension scheme that was renegotiated four years ago so that it does not only fund itself, but raises another 2 billion, which ends up going into the treasury's coffers rather than being used to sustain our pension scheme. As others have said, this is nothing more than a sly tax increase on our income. In the end, all this strike will do is make service levels exactly the same as it usually is every Saturday and Sunday.

[Jamie]

(Original post by DynamicSyngery)
Doctors stop working on bank holidays? I bloody well hope they don't bunk off to watch the Olympics at least...

On a bank holiday you only have the same level of working as a weekend. No routine operations, no routine appointments. Emergencies only. Most doctors do not work.

On the strike day ALL doctors will be at work and any operations judged urgent or emergency will proceed. Emergency care on the wards will be BETTER than the average weekend.

Patients will get far far better care on strike day than on any given bak holiday (of which the govt has given us 2 extra in the ast 2 years)

[Jamie]

(Original post by DynamicSyngery)
Doctors stop working on bank holidays? I bloody well hope they don't bunk off to watch the Olympics at least...

Not watching the olympics. You have no idea of the disruption to the hospitals caused by the Olympics. A few are closing to locals, mine is going to be out of action for a few specific days due to activity on the streets outside.
No extra money has been allocated by the govt for increased staff.