UNISON head of nursing Gail Adams delivers a Christmas message to nurses, midwives, health visitors and healthcare assistants:
“I have ended 2014 as an in-patient. It’s a very weird experience for the boot to be on the other foot. However, it’s given me an opportunity first hand to remember how fantastic you all are.
“During my three weeks in hospital, I witnessed kindness and absolute humanity from all staff, from the healthcare assistants who helped to bathe me, to the murses who were my advocates and kept me pain free, to the domestics – or tea goddesses as I called them.
“Everyone was working with a single purpose of caring for me and others.
“It’s been a tough year for all. But I am asking you to dig in and continue to fight with us, for you to receive a decent pay rise.
“I have been inspired and impressed by you on our picket lines. But I ask you to remember, while George Osborne is tucking into his goose over the holidays, it will be you who will be working hard caring for the most vulnerable in our society.
“There is no nurse, midwife or healthcare assistant in this land who does not deserve a decent pay rise.
“A decent pay rise for you isn’t about the luxuries in life, it’s for you and your family to live in dignity. Surely we all deserve that.
“From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you to you all for all of the hard work you have given this year caring for others.
“I know that a number of you will be working, and for those I hope that your shifts are quite ones. For those of you who are off, I hope that you have a lovely time with your friends and family.
“May 2015 bring you peace and happiness. But most of all may it bring you all a decent pay rise, and a new government come May that respects nurses and doesn’t take us for meek and mild individuals – when we stand together, united, they will hear us roar.”
