Saturday 29 December 2007

Nurses shackled by huge debt burden

A recent survey by the trade union Unison revealed the extent of personal indebtedness among student nurses. While a newly qualified nurse earns just £19,683 a year, the average student is carrying £7,000 of debt. The study shows some students have debts of more than £25,000, while the number of nursing students with debts of more than £20,000 has almost doubled in a year.

With such low earnings, and high levels of debt, it shouldn't be a surprise that the NHS finds it difficult to hire nurses in property hot spots like London.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's what you have Polish nurses for.

You should remember that this report is from a union that is trying to get its members a pay rise.

I say they can have a pay rise in exchange for loosing the gold plated pension

Anonymous said...

Well how about you go and do the job then Amigauser? It's all very well spouting crap like that when you are so far detached from the reality of the healthcare services, these people are expected to deal with the worse that humanity has to offer from birth to death, I think a "gold plated" pension, which is a load of crap anyway is the *least* we can do for them. let alone the basic decency of a living wage.

My partner works for the NHS, she is overworked and underpaid but still loves her job dearly, without people like her you will be back to living in Victorian era squalor where the sick who cant pay for treatment or the old and infirm simply are cast into the streets to die.

I only hope you dont get really sick or get old and infirm as it will be these people that try and do the best they can for you in terrible understaffed and underfunded cirmcumstances.

Here is a challenge for you, go and do a few hours volantery work at your local A & E or care ward and *then* tell me they dont deserve a decent wage...no,on second thoughts I bet this isnt even in your capacity as a human being.

Anonymous said...

I have a sister who is a nurse, so I know what working conditions are like in the NHS/BUPA.

You claim that they deserve a pay raise, but I ask :-

Is their an actual shortage of nurses? Or is it a yearly propaganda from a union looking to get its members a pay raise.

What taxes would you increase, to pay for the pay raise?

Why should public sector workers get a type of pension no one in the private sector now gets?

Why should she get a pay raise, when people in the private sector are having to take pay cuts to keep their jobs?

If your partner believes she is underpaid, let her go and work in another industry/country.

Until we cannot recruit Polish/Romanian or African nurses to do the job at the set rate now, Why should the Nurses get any pay raise?

Why should I believe someone who publishes Union propaganda, and then uses it to justify a pay raise for a job their are plenty of people willing to do at the set rate now?

Does your partner donate to the labour party via the political levee. If so, why does she contribute to the party that put the nurses in debt?

Anonymous said...

Polish and other people from Eastern Europe who come into the UK are not buying £300K houses are they.
Whilst they create a demand for housing, they are not the ones actually driving the prices up.
Gordon Brown in cahoots with the BOE are the ones responsible, by setting artficially low interest rates and encouraging house price inflation. (house prices are conveniently omitted from the Consumer Price Index !)
That way, people feel wealthy, borrow against their houses, keep the economy going and so the cycle continues...houses go up again...
I was hoping house prices would crash, but as long as Gordon is in a position to mould MPC/BOE policy and cut interest rates to prop up the housing market, then I am afraid this smoke and mirrors economy will continue a while longer !!!