HC Deb 02 February 1979 vol 961 cc1837-8
Mr. Michael Shersby (Uxbridge)

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I beg leave to present a petition from nurses employed at Hillingdon hospital and elsewhere in the London borough of Hillingdon. The petition reads as follows: To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition of Hillingdon Centre of the Royal College of Nurses sheweth:

  1. (1) the negotiation of senior staff salaries has been outstanding since 1974;
  2. (2) the National Health Service functions only by the goodwill of staff: this is rapidly being eroded and morale has never been lower than at present;
  3. (3) trained nurses are leaving for better-paid posts in industry and abroad, and, whilst the workload is constantly increasing, staffing levels are reaching a dangerously low level;
  4. (4) hospitals are being run at night by nurses "moonlighting" to supplement their income: this causes lack of continuity and lowering of both the standards and quality of patient care;
  5. (5) due to low rates of pay, many staff are obliged to live in subsidised accommodation, such as nurses' homes, many of which are below acceptable standards: Community Services and Area Health Authorities are unable to offer suitable accommodation;
  6. (6) community staff who already subsidise the National Health Service and Area Management Service by using their own cars are taxed on their maintenance allowances: telephone and uniform allowances are similarly taxed;
  7. (7) all meal breaks are in staff's own time although staff are frequently on call or disturbed during these times.
Wherefore your Petitioners humbly pray that your Honourable House will do all in its power to support the campaign for:
  1. (1) the evolution of a continuous system whereby nurses and other members of the public service would receive adequate pay 1838 awards in line with industry, thereby removing the need to ask for rises every three or four years;
  2. (2) an immediate interim pay award;
  3. (3) the abolition of differentials payable to all nurses engaged in psychiatric, geriatric and similar forms of nursing, and the increase of the basic salary for all nursing grades:
  4. (4) extra duty payments to be brought into line with other disciplines, with, for example, time and a half for Saturday work and double time for work on Sundays and Bank Holidays;
  5. (5) a review of night duty and on-call payments;
  6. (6) the remuneration of Community Ward sisters and charge nurses for staying at Direct Patient Care (rather than going into nursing management) and the establishment of differentials for so doing; and
  7. (7) the payment to learners of an educational grant, rather than their being funded, as at present, out of Area budget.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.

To lie upon the Table.

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