'Appeal to lift nurses' pay cap'

SIR - It’s rare that nursing staff feel the need to be ‘political’.

We get on with doing the job of caring for patients that we are dedicated to. Many of us cannot imagine doing anything else.

But we now find ourselves in a situation that can no longer be tolerated.

Since 2010, pay freezes and the 1% cap on public sector pay awards have left NHS nursing staff at least £3,000 worse off, with salaries having been cut by 14 per cent in real terms.

The pay cap not only leaves nurses struggling financially, it is fuelling a shortage of nurses that could and should have been avoided.

People are being put off joining the profession and many are leaving.

There are 40,000 unfilled nursing jobs across England, and this supply crisis is placing the quality of patient care at risk.

A recent Royal College of Nursing survey showed that nine out of ten of our members would support industrial action if the pay cap is not lifted.

Many nurses are now getting involved in a ‘summer of protest’ to give the Government a final chance to scrap the cap before the prospect of a formal ballot on action later this year.

Readers may see us as we take part in protests and we hope they will support our campaign for nurses and nursing to be properly valued and treated fairly.

Without nursing staff, the NHS cannot survive.

Please support our campaign and join our call for the Government to #scrapthecap so we can continue to be there for the patients who need us now and in the future.

Tracey Budding & Sue Warner

RCN Council members, West Midlands

'The NHS that you deserve'

Sir - Many of the readers of Worcester News will have read that ‘Theresa May is pledging an extra 10,000 staff to work in NHS mental health services’ withhout saying how they will be funded.

Can any of your readers guess how many extra recruitment placements have been made?

That’s right. None, according to leading Nursing Training Academies.

Just empty words from a Government that is gradually starving the NHS of funds that it needs to provide safe care for all of the population.

Despite their defence that they are putting record amounts of money into the NHS we still have the lowest spending on health care as a percentage of GDP in Europe.

The current problems faced by our local Hospitals that are in special measures, can all be traced back to lack of funding.

A&E Patients being treated in corridors?

Not a big enough A&E Department.

Shortage of Nurses? likely to get worse now that training.recruitment is well down due to the scrapping of bursaries for Nurse Training meaning big debts for trainees and the slow down of EU Nurses coming to UK due to Brexit.

How anyone could have voted for this bunch of incompetents beats me.

Not happy with the state of the NHS in Worcestershire?

Well most of you voted for the Tories so you have got what you deserve.

Terry James

Worcester

'May has lost credibility'

SIR - EU citizens regard Mrs. May’s offer on their rights to stay in the UK as “pathetic”.

From a non-political point-of-view I should prefer her stand down sooner rather than later.  Unfortunately for her  (although her own doing/fault)  I think she has lost credibility amongst party members as well as the public.   The result of the unnecessary General Election destabilised the country and her party whilst the shenanigans over her inserting damaging policies into the manifesto without discussion, damaging to the elderly, young and unwell,  subsequently dropped, showed her to be sadly uncaring  with poor judgement.

Thankfully “strong and stable”  have  all but disappeared.  Unfortunately however it seems that she relies far too much on platitudinous expression.

Wendy Hands

Upton-upon-Severn

'Delivering a nuisance'

SIR - I had arranged to collect my dear wife from the city centre, after she’d returned from Birmingham on Monday evening, her train was time tabled to arrive at Foregate Street station at 16.45 hrs with the meeting place set, that being a coffee shop in Pump Street.

After buying us both a drink, we sat outside, both to people watch and to advantage of the afternoon sunshine.

Gorgeous, the high stressful heat had melted away, and with a very light breeze there could have been no better place in the world to be!

 Then a great clatter.

A poor pedestrian was forced into a table and chair set.

No, she didn’t trip or stumble, she was forced into the chair to avoid being hit by a young man on his push bike, a “Deliveroo” cyclist.

Now these Deliveroo cyclists are all over the city especially during the evening delivering takeaway meals.

These cyclists seem to think they own our pedestrianised areas, they weave in and out of us mere mortals.

Nine times out of 10 they have there headphones in, they seem to be oblivious to the rest of us.

But they are putting pedestrians in danger by their lack of respect not only for us but also for the laws of the highways and byways.    Now there are going to be those who say, better using push bikes than wasting petrol and causing pollution. Yes ,I agree.

But let the cyclist abide by the laws, use the road network and designated cycle paths and stop being “Deliveroo psychopaths”

Gary Kibblewhite

Worcester

'Tories find a money tree'

SIR - In the run-up to the recent General Election, Francis Lankester, a Tory, had letters published here which demonstrated his unthinking and zealous devotion to meaningless Maybot-isms.

 He displayed, for all to see, his ignorance of economics (he would be well-advised to stick to history), and poured vitriol on the spending plans of other political parties, loyally parroting that “there is no magic money tree”.

I would now love to hear his views on the deal done with Northern Ireland’s DUP, by the weak and wobbly government which he worships, and which, in essence, has bought, at our expense, support for keeping it in power.

The cost is an extra one billion pounds, no less, of government expenditure in Northern Ireland, and constitutes a massive 10% increase, equivalent to £530 per person.

It would appear that there is, after all, a “magic money tree”; but should we taxpayers in Worcester and elsewhere in the UK feel relaxed about our hard-earned being used in this way?

Is this not simply the latest demonstration of the political truism that the Conservatives are always, whenever necessary, prepared to put the needs of their party above the needs of the country as a whole?

How on Earth do these Tories have the brass neck to insist upon the need for unity when such tawdry, partial and dis-unifying deals are promoted by them?

David Barlow

Worcester

'Experience is the problem'

SIR - I note from your June 20th letters Jim Cameron wrote that Mr Campion the police commissioner is attempting to grow his empire.

It would be in my Judgement potentially more cost effective to amalgamate the Fire Service.

However, the issue here is that Mr Campion has absolutely no experience in running any business.

His CV showed that he was a District and County Councillor and worked taking part time work through Pertemps.

Does this Qualify him to run an organisation of this size?

No, he is there only because West Mercia consists of Tory Constituencies.

Electors should be able to elect Commissioners on ability, not on political lines.

Peter Jewell

Worcester