Nottm HCSWs are stronger than ever

The strike at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust shows no sign of ending. After full week’s strike from 9 June by health care support workers, there were more on the picket lines that in the first six weeks.

The budget for the two huge hospitals is £1.8 billion, and it would take only £5 million to pay the hundreds of workers their demand: back pay for the six years they have been doing work way above their pay grade.

Partly, the Chief Executive, Anthony May, wants to maintain a reputation of being tough on unions that he gained as Chief Exec of the Tory (now Reform) Notts county council. Many other Trusts have settled the back pay but May doesn’t want to lose face by admitting he was wrong.

We need to look also at the bigger picture of the NHS.

14 years of Tory underfunding led to Labour being elected last year on a promise to restore funding and settle the long running junior doctors’ strike, which had cost £1.5 billion when £1 billion would have given them their 35% claim. The settlement left much to be desired, but it looked as if there was a change in direction. Since then, the worse situation than the Labour leaders thought has led to austerity, plummeting popularity for Labour, and the rise of Reform.

On 10 June of the strike the Trust announced the Government has told it it has to “save” another £97 million from “support services”, though computer services, admin staff etc already cut to the bone lead to greater expenditure and more cuts . (Hundreds of hospitals have been hit by cyber attacks with ransomware, costing millions, as computer systems are not kept up to date and frequently crash).

Health care assistants have been renamed “support workers” but they are front-line. When strikers marched to the Executive Board meeting on 11 June it was clear the Board don’t understand how vital this front line role is.

The Trust have said savings have to be made on the £20 million budget for agency workers and the £200 million budget for drugs. But, as I know from having a recent treatment for prostate cancer, NHS England say they can’t afford the £77 a month drug aberiterone that can keep thousands of us alive (though NHS Scotland and HSC Northern Ireland still fund it), and that will mean much more spent on hospital and palliative care.

Settle the strike now! That will save on agency workers. More centrally, the Labour government need to give the NHS the funding it needs.