Janus

Me too, its so easy and tasty and usually pretty healthy. Made brocolli and strong cheddar soup recently, was effing awesome!

Alex, those are just shocking. Hugs to you all, must've been horrendous :no:

Does the hospital have a PALS office? That's a good place to start - and try this link http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/complaints/Pages/NHScomplaints.aspx

Sounds yummy! Love it when I do a surprise dinner. I made lush winter veg and lentil soup this week with last week's carrots, leeks, butternut squash and potatoes.....

Mate, that explains everything lol! You just need a badge with that on, you'll be fine :thumbup1:

Thats utterly shocking, I hope that there was an investigation and the guilty parties were struck off. I've just spent a week learning all about the nursing theory behind regularly turning patients who are unable to move, to prevent pressure sores, because if any patient gets a pressure sore, it is total neglect. I feel horrified to be part of the profession who gave this so called "care" to your poor dad.

AnthonyD for PM I say!

Or this man I heart Ian Holloway

F**k Clarkson for PM, Jeremy PAXMAN for PM, he's mint!

Eric Cantona, surely?

mmmmmmm curry

Only coz my 5yr old daughter grew out of it tho :lol:

It doesn't, its your pink tutu :beta1:

Alex, I was ALIVE when the unions took grip of the country, not to mention my degree in UK Government and Politics which kinda covered it but hey... I disagree with you re the strike, aka throwing a strop, but suspect we could talk round and round without ever seeing eye to eye on this one.

Gay.....

You're taking it personally too Alex! And rightly so, and I hope that investigations subsequent to this tragedy ensure that if neglect and malpractice occurred, that appropriate action is taken. Far be it from me to say the NHS isn't without its huge issues, my god it really is the most bureaucratic, huge and unwieldy organisation and communication within it is shocking at times :thumbdown: My point is that personally I WILL NOT accept that my skills are a nurse should have a lower monetary value than yours as a software engineer, for as long as I take breath on this planet. I'm not naive enough to think me as a lone person can make a change, but I have always been and always will be an active union member (I joined the Royal College of Nursing the day I started my nursing). And I hope that as part of this union, I can help to at least start to change the views or the majority so that perhaps in future, as a specialist nurse, I might actually get a salary that does entitle me to a decent quality of life - I don't think it'd any less hard earned or deserved than yours

So basically fit the F**k in or F**k the F**k off then? :tt2:

Bit of a crap analogy tho, given that if Farmville or Facebook went tits up tomorrow, yes some people would find it annoying, but it wouldn't be life threatening. You're not responsible for ensuring people don't die (and I can promise you that if nurses and doctors kill people at work, they don't keep their jobs and are struck off the professional register so they cannot practice again) and you could lose your job any day anyway Alex coz that is also the nature of the beast. Its a bit of a moot point really. I'm not suggesting I could do your job and I could do yours and nor would we want to, but as a nurse I can't make someone better than well, I can't stop people from dying when they come to the end of their natural life, and to be honest, how much harder could I really work? Would you want nurses to treat more patients and measure output? The nature of care work isn't about volume of patients treated or productivity, its about the quality of care given, you're not comparing like with like

Well anyone who knows any nurses or healthcare professions will know that they're not just in the job for the money, its because they love the job and are passionate about caring for people (and thank god for those people) - but why is it that when nurses or other public sector staff stick their heads above the parapet and stay, actually, I think I'm underpaid and think its reasonable to get paid a decent wage for this job, that they get jumped on and accused of being greedy?

I've done those long hours too Alex, working as a conference organiser and facilitator for a blue chip company, without overtime, all over Europe away from my family. Kudos is great but it don't pay the bills. But I disagree with what you say about knowing what you're letting yourself in for when you work in the public sector - hardly the case when the government moves the goalposts? So if its widely acknowledged that say, nurses, get a pretty shit salary for the job they do, why is it no reasonable for them to at least expect a decent pension in return? I mean, its all very well people saying things like "90% of public sector workers wouldn't manage working in the real world", like working in the NHS is some sort of mecca or haven for the bloody lazy - but in all honesty, could you or Kev do 3 back to back 14 hour shifts (yes this is what my shift pattern is) working with highly disabled adults and children with severe learning disabilities, who perhaps are doubly incontinent and can only be fed via a PEG? I think its downright insulting that people can make sweeping generalisations about the abilities of public sector workers and their abilities to work in the private sector (smacks to me of someone assuming that public sector is somehow more lowly than private sector) when in actual fact the majority of them work damned hard, are passionate about their careers and the people they care for and quite rightly demand adequate recompense for their toils. "That's just the way of the world" doesn't cut it with me I'm afraid. Hence my support of the strikes - why the feck should I roll over and accept that? How do you think slave and child labour ended? How did minimum wage and working time directives get into force?

I think people tend to focus on the negative cases and the truly hard-working civil servants/public sectors get taken for granted/overlooked/tarred with the same brush as those over paid, lazy bureaucrats. I've come across from VERY similar types working for a blue chip company too. And re strikes, the nurses DID NOT strike yesterday, the Royal College of Nursing decided not to ballot members as the majority of nurses, whilst supporting their non-clinical colleagues within the NHS and being against the government's proposed pension changes, decided that it was not appropriate for nurses to take industrial action at the risk of patient safety. I'm never ever going to support this government or its proposed changes to the pension scheme or indeed the huge cuts to the NHS. If you google a chap called Clive Peedell, he is a personal friend and consultant oncologist - he is also very anti the proposed NHS reforms. Its worth reading some of his blogs. I appreciate that books need to be balanced, but I also think that the short term, short sighted thinking regarding cutting NHS services will lead to some incredibly serious long term consequences for the NHS and healthcare in the UK, which will cost a hell of a lot more to put right and will set this country back 30 years in terms of healthcare

As long as its on your "eye's" (sic) Allan that's totally fine, I still think its a terribly judgemental comment and i'm angry about it, which I'm entitled to be. I like it up here on my high horse thanks :thumbup:

Whats that based on Kev? I've worked successfully in both areas, and know lots of people who have?

What the feck difference did it make where they spent the day? They weren't getting paid for work, they could've been painting the sky pink for all it matters. Being on strike doesn't make anyone a moron and it doesn't mean you have to be outside your place of work waving plackards either Moron? I don't think so God Im fuming

I won't respond to all your points Kev as clearly we have very different viewpoints about this, BUT the reason the private sector has to fund the public sector is because its exactly that, PUBLIC SECTOR, funded by public money, ie taxation from everyone including those working in the private sector