Health campaigners holding ‘marathon’ protests at QEQM in bid to ‘save services’

SONIK protest

Kent campaigners are holding a “marathon” protest outside Margate’s QEQM hospital demanding local health services are saved from cuts and privatisation.

Save Our NHS in Kent (SONIK) is also calling for NHS staff to be better paid.

Candy Gregory, a registered nurse and member of SONIK, said: “With lockdown restrictions we cannot at present have the mass marches and demos we’ve had in the past. So instead we’re going for the marathon approach — we’re going to be having a small, legally allowed presence protesting outside QEQM hospital every week until further notice.”

Dr Coral Jones, of SONIK said: “NHS and care home staff have to hold hands of people who are dying as their loved ones can’t be there. They face the threat of infection every day all the time  these workers are struggling financially. This is appalling.

“The NHS know staff cannot afford to live on their wages. They even have a ‘pay day loan’ system, run by Greensill , to allow staff to request their wages early.”
Dr Jones said that low pay will lead to a further deterioration of the NHS.

She said: “There is already a shortage of 100,000 NHS workers. Poverty wages causing debt will worsen recruitment and retention.”

She claims keeping wages down is part of a strategy to pave the way for further privatisation of the NHS.

During the Budget in March a one per cent pay rise for NHS staff was proposed.

The rise, which will need to be agreed by an independent panel before going to Ministers this May, is the only rise for public sector workers.

Government says the impact of covid means there are financial constraints and the 1% rise is what can be afforded. Other public sector workers pay, such as for police officers, has been frozen.

The decision has caused a backlash. The Royal College of Nursing Council has responded to the pay increase level by setting up a £35 million industrial action fund.

A strike fund is an amount of money that can be used to support workers, who are members of a trade union, to provide some compensation for loss of earnings and campaigning during industrial action.

RCN Council says it is determined to have the finances available to members should they wish to take industrial action.

2 Comments

  1. I can only repeat what has been said before. These people are doing work that ministers would never touch yet they treat them like the muck on their shoes. 1% pay rise is the biggest insult this or any government can give to the people who put their lives in danger on a daily basis to make sure that the sick and dying do so in as much comfort and company as is possible. I am ashamed of this government for being so tight with the cash that we know they are saving to line their own pockets when they pat themselves on the back and say ‘We did a wonderful job saving the country from the pandemic we now can have our thousands of pounds pay rise’. Come on WAKE UP, if it was not for ALL these angels you would not be here give them what is due to them.

  2. How about a slow hand clap every Thursday evening, to register that this complete brain dead Tory government are a useless bunch of pillocks, that couldn’t run a bath! And what happened to Johnson’s promise to sort out Social Care, when is that going to happen, or was it just another one of his porkies?

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