NHS and health

The BMA has announced a junior doctors' strike on 14-17 June

For the past two years a variant of H5N1 avian influenza (bird flu) has been circulating in wild and domestic bird populations. This strain, particularly transmissible and deadly to birds, started in unaffected geese and ducks (migratory birds). The flu variant has not yet spread in humans; measures to guard against that have included six months where farmed birds have been kept inside and a number of other measures affecting animal welfare. A select few strains of influenza (H1 and H3) can infect humans (and pigs), whilst birds are affected by H5 and H7 influenza. Humans can become ill with...

The re-ballot for industrial action on pay in the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) runs up to 23 June.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) re-ballot for pay strikes opened on 23 May and runs up to 23 June. As it is an aggregated ballot, every vote will make a difference in getting past the turnout threshold. The NHS Workers Say No group ( linktr.ee/nhsworkerssayno ) and activists in the RCN are again working hard to get the vote out. Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty are doing all we can to support their efforts for a continuation of the fight on pay in the NHS. Although the union leaders are backing a vote for strikes, it looks like they are providing depleted resources. They showed, by...

The government is under attack from the Tory right wing for being too “soft” on immigration and on Brexit. Probably the critics are setting out their stall for a Tory leadership contest after the next general election. The big fact for the labour movement is that this Tory government is already very right-wing even on the Tory scale, and feels itself under as much pressure from the further-right as from the labour movement and the left. Sunak has always been on the Tory right. The government is pushing back against pay demands harder than private employers, and putting through a concentrated...

Junior doctors in England will strike again on 14-16 June (ending 7am 17 June)

A BBC Panorama programme on 15 May focused on private companies offering unreliable diagnoses of ADHD (“attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”) and too-casual resort to medication. Its misplaced focus will damage the fight of people with ADHD for recognition and against discrimination. it is a scandal that people have to pay thousands of pounds to private companies to be assessed for ADHD. But the real scandal is that many-years-long NHS waiting lists are forcing them to do so. Of course, unscrupulous pill-pushers will thrive in this climate. The deeper scandal is that our society...

Harry Eccles, who is an activist with "NHS Workers Say No’, "Team Vote Reject", and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), talked to Solidarity. (Photo: Steve Eason). I joined the RCN as a student. I was told I had to join a union to ensure I had indemnity. Five or six years ago I became an RCN "pay champion" for a couple of years. I was working at Southampton General at the time. In the role of pay champion I tried to raise awareness of the problem with pay and get people involved with the campaign. I think that campaign sowed the seeds for the more recent campaign on pay. Last September or...

The RCN reballot will run from 23 May to 23 June. Everyone supporting a continuation of the fight on pay and to save the NHS, whatever union they are in, should do what they can to support the vote for strike. Members will need to be convinced that escalation is possible, especially with of co-ordinated action with the BMA and Unite. Unite has a continuing mandate and is balloting in further trusts including in the ambulance sector. We have to argue against an nurses-only strategy for the dispute. In the longer term a united scale of pay and terms and conditions across the NHS can serve us...

RCN conference special, Health strike bulletin #4: Keep up the fight! 15 May 2023, by and for health workers. Download here.