Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 29th March, 2023)

Good for them ! They get paid less per hour than someone that serves in a coffee shop.

How the government can make money to pay their wages is to put more police and traffic wardens out on the streets. Vehicle number plates tampered with, parking on double yellow lines, bad driving, no tax insurance or MOTs. Go up Market street Hindley and take notice how many cars, van are parked on the pavement over double yellow lines, ignoring the law.
This is just one way for the government to pay for the NHS etc. Throwing litter out on the streets, we see it everyday. I could go on......

Agreed Arthur, I've seen many cars with jumbled up number plates with owners trying to make names out of the plates , sometimes unreadable.

I was shocked to learn they are only worth the equivalent of £14 an hour…and the hospital wards are run with them whilst they get their experience. (Supermarket staff earn £10. ) I’ve seen how hard they work and their delight and excitement when they pass their exams. That’s after all the years of study….

They take the job knowing full well what the pay is when they are junior doctors, they also know what they will earn after a few years at the job, and it is many times that of a supermarket worker.

I'm not sure about that £14 a hour claim . £29, 384 is the starting salary according to BMA . I am definitely sceptical about food banks being rammed with nurses . They have my sympathy and they deserve a rise , but who doesn't .
This is a difficult one for me , regarding the morality of a doctor's / nurses strike .
" I have SPECIAL obligations to my fellow human beings " , is part of the Hippocratic Oath .
I hope no one suffers due to neglect .

You are so right freddie, they are very well paid they keep saying they are suffering, but none of these junior doctors looked like they were suffering to me when I drove past them.
You would think they would be looking glum but the ones I saw outside of the infirmary all looked very happy.

Wards are never left without doctors no matter what is going on. I think the Government make use of the oath the doctors take for their own agenda. All NHS hospital staff need the rises which have lagged behind. A lot of it is due to the massive rise in inflation which certainly affects everybody. Most of them are young with mortgages to pay. The country and the NHS is in a dreadful mess. I admit it’s a very bad time to go on strike. Staff are leaving in droves because of so much pressure. Not to mention the waiting lists for patients having operations.
You are lucky if you can get an appointment with a doctor, most of them are working from home.

Freddie and Tom, will you still be in the same mind if you ever have to go to A&E clutching your chest - you will be very glad that there still are folks who want to train as doctors and have the expertise to bring you back from deaths door.

The NHS wants a complete overall, firstly from the top, and get rid of all the unnecessary chaff which has accumulated in the cobwebs up there over the years. We've all seen them walking around with a few papers in their hand trying to look busy.

Cyril, just where did say that people don't wish to train as doctors? with regard to inflation rates almost half of the increase is due to energy costs, which should fall later this year. It seems to me that there are elements of society that are using the current situation, led by war in Europe, to feed their own agenda and hopes of a socialist government.

When I started my apprenticeship I was on £3/17 and at 18 I was on less than £8 per week.I went to the tech one day a week 9 am till 9 pm and another night till 9pm till I was 21.Some of my mates were on well over £20 a week at 18.l stuck at it and it paid its rewards later as it will for doctors and nurses .I went in Bolton General last year for four not very nice procedures and all the staff, surgeons,nurses were excellent but that is the job they chose to do.

Just because they chose to take on a vocational profession
( as opposed to being a Lawyer or Plumber etc) does not mean they shouldn’t be paid adequately. As far as the energy levels falling -we live in hope!

Poet i am to like you said sceptical about nurses using food banks i just dont believe it when they take on big mortgages they must be on good money because they wont be able to pay there mortgages they are fooling everyone and everybody has been taken in with this cost of living crisis life is still going on people are still going out and eating in posh places i have seen it.

freddie, with the certainty that day follows night, so it shall be that the Labour Party will most likely be the Political Party that's elected at the next general election to replace the Conservative Party, it's what's happened in the past and you can see it coming again.

Old Vlad RasPutin will certainly be watching the outcome, and yes I agree with you about elements of society, his red recruits are doing a good job at stirring up trade union members aren't they, and not just here either.

I did not say anything about their pay I am just saying they chose that career.They must have looked into the length of training and what was involved and their future prospects before they went down their chosen route.

'Live within your means' an oldie but so true.

People do not go on strike because they are greedy. It is a hardship to the striker to do so and they do so because they are desperate. These people risked their lives for us only a couple of years ago and are now being forced into industrial action due to Tory cuts. What surprises me about this thread is that no one has mentioned the real reason which is over a decade of reduced fundings by this government. Regardless of individual political leanings we should at least acknowledge the reason for this and many other public service strikes. We should not blindly accept a society where people are, literally, begging for food at food banks in the UK.

People were standing on their doorsteps cheering the NHS during Lockdown.
By the way Julie how do you know whether it wasn’t the unqualified nursing staff going to food banks. There’s a big difference in their wages to the qualified nurses. I should think most people look into what their chosen career or vocation involves. This is a first for young doctors to strike, I don’t think they are ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ either. They take on a great deal of responsibility .
“Needs must when the devil drives” .
Last time I heard the nurses were content with what they received.

Agreed Owd Reekie. Sense at last!

Only middle class professionals seem to strike these days . All of them on above average salaries and better pensions than most . Even barristers had a crack at it .
Are they the core of the modern labour party ? The number of Socialist Worker banners that appear at their demo's is clear to see .
There's only so much pie . A bigger slice for you leaves less for others .
At the moment The Public Sector remind me of a sort of cosseted Louis XIV court kept going by over taxed paupers .
Teachers had nothing short of an 18 month paid holiday during the pandemic . The people who did sterling service for the country at that time along with the doctors and nurses were the check out girls in the supermarkets . What increase are they getting ?
As I said earlier, the doctors deserve more , but 35% ! Really ! Give it them if you like but we must all be prepared to pay more tax. We can always eat cake .

Billions are paid into the NHS by the government . More so now than ever .
The money is wasted by poor managers who are vastly overpaid and more bothered about diversity targets than anything else .

Arthur are you saying that motorists and litterbugs should pay for the NHS? How much do you propose to fine someone that is parked on double yellow lines ?

Quite a few new twists to 'the politics of envy' line....

It cost 6 million quid a day to put migrants in hotels. Now let's just put this in perspective. How many Doctors and nurses would benefit that sort of cash......don't forget £6 million a day.

Spot on Dave and the ones at the very bottom get the least.It’s easy to spend someone else’s money.

You've brought good discussion and a lot of good comments with your photo Mick, there's more comments than there are pickets.

I took my brother to Leigh for his appointment today.
We booked in and took a seat in a clean, warm department. The toilets, both able and disabled were spotlessly clean and the staff friendly and helpful.
After 15 or 16 minutes the young nurse called his name and greeted him with the kind of banter that owd lads like us love to indulge in. He came out a few minutes later with a smile on his face, a smile that warmed my heart knowing how ill he is.
Please don’t moan the N.H.S out of existence. I’m sure we will all regret it if you do.

Threw three treble twenties with that one Dave . Well done lad .

Well Nick, there are many motorist who break the law all over the Country, millions of vehicles. Most are good drivers but many who are not. Litter louts, graffiti vandalism. All these fines would help the NHS. Plus make our Country a better and safer place to live.

Managers on wards are trained Nursing Sisters as are Bed Managers.

The pay received by junior doctors is dependent on experience. During foundation training, doctors will earn a basic salary of between £29,384 to £34,012 per year. A doctor beginning their specialist training will earn between £40,257 to £53,398 a year.

Nick missing the point. Some don't just get it!

A really good read is This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay, in it he tells it as it is for a junior doctor, warts, blood and all the rest, in parts it is funny and also sad, but all in all it makes you wonder how the hell is the NHS still functioning.

I think too many folk think it’s like the Carry On films Cyril and all these Hospital programmes ( I can’t watch them). My eyes were opened when I worked at Bolton Hospital for 10 years before retiring 12 years ago and I was only clerical staff! So many changes in that time.