NHS and health

The NHS pay consultation ballots of the biggest health unions, RCN and Unison, are due to close on Friday 14 April. The Vote Reject campaign has delivered tens of thousands of leaflets across the country, and is bringing together workers from all the health unions to organise against the offer. Places where the campaign has a good levels of activism expect a strong No vote. However, in some areas many members will be untouched by the debate, and, without a convincing argument about how to win a better deal, may well be tempted by the unconsolidated “bribe” payment for 2022-23. RCN members, who...

In November 2022 the government’s Industrial Injury Advisory Panel found that there is a “large body of consistent supporting evidence” that health and social care workers “have been exposed to significantly increased risk” of infection, illness and death due to Covid-19. Nobody has counted, but it is thought that over 1,500 NHS and social care staff died of Covid-19. Many of these lives might have been saved by simple infection control measures. NHS’s Covid safety measures were and still remain astonishingly inadequate. Although some individuals won safety improvements in their work areas and...

Junior doctors, who struck for three days in March, struck for four days from 11 April. They are demanding “pay restoration” — a clear timetable for reversal of the 26% real terms pay cut they have suffered since 2008. For the first time in its history, the British Medical Association (BMA) has set up a strike fund . Taking only her normal doctor’s salary rather than the increased payment for working for the union part-time, the deputy chair of the BMA’s Council, socialist junior doctor Emma Runswick, has donated £22,000 . Grace Allport, a junior doctor in the North West, told Solidarity :...

Consultation ballots on the derisory offer to NHS workers opened on 28 March 2023. The Vote Reject campaign has delivered tens of thousands of leaflets ( click here ) across the country, and is bringing together workers from all the health unions to organise against the offer. The campaign is starting to articulate ideas for an escalation of action alongside the BMA junior doctors if the offer is rejected. The petition for an Emergency General meeting of the RCN has been restarted, and emergency motions for Unison health conference (17-19 April) are circulating. It will be difficult to win a...

British Medical Assocation (BMA) activist Grace Allport spoke to Solidarity . The first round of strikes [13-15 March] was fantastic. At my hospital [in Wigan] we had a good turnout on strike, and probably 30 pickets out of about 200 junior doctors. There was positive energy and morale stayed high. We had visits from other trade unionists and some strikers went on the big cross-union demo in Manchester, with good feedback. We also had strong support from the public. Our clear core message is that doctors are not worth less than they were in 2008 [the BMA demand is for a clear timetable for...

The result of the government negotiations with the RCN, Unison, GMB, Unite and CSP on behalf of health workers on Agenda for Change contracts in England was announced on 16 March - a one off taxed payment for 2022-23 between £1655 and £3789 increasing by pay band, and 5% for 2023-24. The health unions will run online member consultations on the offer in the next few weeks. RCN and Unison from 28 March -14 April, GMB from 3 April and Unite 31 March to 28t April. RCN, Unison and GMB are recommending the offer, and Unite will not make a recommendation. Over the preceding months the government had...

Manchester-based junior doctor and British Medical Association (BMA) activist Grace Allport spoke to us about junior doctors’ strikes over pay. Here we publish some more from the discussion. I work in Wigan. I started my activity with the BMA as a medical student at Manchester University, which was a good place to get involved because it was quite a political campus and a very big one in terms of medical students. That meant we also sent big delegations to the medical students conference and the ARM [Annual Representative Meeting, the BMA’s national conference]. After graduating I sat on the...

The NHS Workers Say No! group has put out a leaflet calling on health workers to vote no to the current offer and organise for renewed industrial action at a higher tempo. Click here for the PDF

I am sure many supporters of Workers’ Liberty would agree with John Smithee’s sensible call ( Solidarity 665 ) for legal regulation of all drugs. Drug-taking is a victimless crime and prohibition causes all manner of social harm, not least ceding a multi-billion pound world market to organised crime. Many non-addictive and relatively harmless drugs, like psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA, are illegal whereas alcohol and tobacco are highly addictive and very harmful. There is some evidence that humans have taken mind-altering substances since the Stone Age and like music or dance it appears common...

From 13 March tens of thousands of junior doctors in England, members of the British Medical Association (BMA), will strike over pay. Manchester-based BMA activist Grace Allport spoke to Solidarity . Our first strike starts early on Monday 13 March and ends early on Thursday 16th. We’re asking all junior doctors – all qualified doctors in training or similar – to strike. There are 56,000 junior doctors in the BMA in England, out of 183,000 BMA members in total – though of course some members won’t strike and some non-members will. Come and join us on the picket lines! Junior doctors are mostly...