‘Exhausted and demoralised staff are walking away from health care’

UNISON’s virtual health conference opened this morning with a succession of motions aimed at ensuring members’ health and wellbeing as the UK moves forward from the pandemic. Ros Norman (pictured above), chair of the health service group executive (HSGE) said: “The consequences of the virus for health care staff was devastating. Every one of the health care workers who died have left families bereaved, teams in tears and branches who will never ever forget the toll that this virus has taken.” UNISON senior vice president Andrea Egan talked of the “unprecedented challenges” on members’ working lives caused by COVID-19. “The NHS has been tested to the limits, and so have many of you,” she said, adding that the pandemic had demonstrated the extent to which the country relied on its health workers. “It will be forever in your debt.” However, the morning’s motions suggested that neither government nor employers seem of a mind to repay that debt. Introducing a motion Pandemic experiences can not be the ‘new normal’ for health workers Eddie Woolley said that the staff who had delivered during COVID were the same staff now expected to bring down the NHS’s massive service backlog. Members were constantly on call, he said, unable to recover even on their days off, suffering from bullying and abuse as the pressure builds on everyone around them. “Exhausted staff were and still are being flogged by a system that is in desperate need of staff an...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article News 2021 Virtual Health Conference Source Type: news