Incensed again

atush

Nope, just my opinion on what I see and hear. Just like your own opinions.

Managers get paid a lot (and have big pensions coming) to push paper around and get in the way of good medicine. Of course, these paper pushers are needed due to the continuing changes and increases in regulation most of which seems to make little sense. The whole thing needs an overhaul and streamlining.

dshart

Koicarp wrote: »

By reducing staff we increase any pension deficit. We also increase the numbers of old ladies who don't get fed, decrease the number of hospital beds, increase the number of people waiting many hours in A&E and increase complaints thereby decreasing public confidence in the service. With decreased public confidence we can then privatise, bring in more competition and decrease our nhs staffing, which will decrease costs.......................
Service users (all of us) will suffer.

As I said I am not arguing the rights and wrongs of the staff reductions, I think doctors and nurses working for the NHS do the best they can with the resources they are given, the same can be said for teachers, police firemen and the rest of the essential services. But I am sure the people working in those industries know of cases where cuts can be made to save money whether it is in overpaid management consultants or unnecessary services.

The unions make this case every time there is talks of cuts, with the headline grabbing news about less doctors, nurses, teachers etc. but do they ever mention the overstaffed departments in some public sector areas or the non-jobs that are created.

The bottom line is cuts need to be made and that is where the discussion should be focused. Keep the essential jobs but be honest and get rid of the dead wood.

I hear others mention how private sector workers can earn more than public sector workers with the same qualifications, but is this true for nurses? can a nurse working in a private hospital earn more than one in the NHS? Private hospitals need to be making a profit or they shut down they make the necessary cuts and if those result in poor service they will eventually lose business and shut. My Dad was in a private hospital for a while and we eventually moved him to a NHS one where I am pleased to say his care was a lot better, so I have a lot of respect for NHS workers but it still does not detract from the fact that cuts need to be made.

lvader

I visit 2-3 hospitals a week and get to see the backroom ops as well as the frontline. On one hand I see a lot of petty cutting that really effects the provision of healthcare but I also see huge amounts of waste. If they were private companies most of them would go bust.

dshart

To tell the truth I feel that whenever there are cuts required to be made a lot of councils use it as an excuse to make a political statement. They know where cuts can be made without affecting services but they choose to deliberately make cuts to services just so they can blame the government. "I'm sorry the library will not be open today because of cuts in government spending"

aka666

big cuts where i work, they willing to pay upto 1 years pay to leave open to most people, 600 have replied, non clinical areas toilets to be cleaned twice a week, bags to be emptied by staff this is not looking good

Old_Slaphead

Andy_L wrote: »

One would hope that NEST will follow the Aus/NZ example and gradually ratchet up contributions to that level, with employers paying (part of) annual pay rises into pension rather than salary

Annual pay rises Andy?

I work for a Midlands SME which is a member of a local business forum. Hardly any have given any sort of annual pay increase for several years now. Like pension schemes - rises are pretty much a thing of the past if you want to keep your job.

jem16

Bigsmak wrote: »

My Girlfriend is a Teacher. She had a Union rep come to her school last year actively encouraging them to strike. She was told that she would be better off stopping paying into the teachers scheme and taking out a private pension instead.

Are you sure it was a Union Rep?

Teachers' unions normally have school representatives so nobody would need to come to the school.

Plus why would a Union Rep encourage members to strike to protect their pensions and then tell them they would be better off taking out a private pension? Wouldn't be much point in striking then, would there?

Sounds more like the work of a rep from the Prudential trying to get teachers to sign up to their AVC scheme.

sheffield_lad

Plenty of evidience here though that unions are over egging how bad the pensions are, I would suggest any PC worker speaks to a FA before doing anything not the rep (joke), who just thinks its a poor deal.

BobQ

howee wrote: »

Plenty of evidience here though that unions are over egging how bad the pensions are, I would suggest any PC worker speaks to a FA before doing anything not the rep (joke), who just thinks its a poor deal.

Evidence is something that proves a claim to be true. We have no evidence, just some speculation by a few people who have so far produced no evidence its true.

sheffield_lad

Ok I agree it was poorly worded, there is no evidence but plenty of suggestion from several sources that this is going on. I would be interested though in a survey/pole which asked what PC workers thought was happening to their pensions and what was actually being suggested. Maybe as their employer the Gov should send each PC worker literature on what the deal actually involves and why they have to (just like the rest of us) work for longer, (pay more in), and get less out.