Pride in and love of our NHS and our union was the theme echoing through UNISON’s health conference in Brighton today.
Service group chair Roz Norman opened by telling delegates: “If there’s one word I want you to emphasise it’s pride: pride in our NHS, pride in our union.”
And general secretary Dave Prentis continued: “I owe a personal debt of gratitude to the NHS. Like many of you, it saved my life.”
But he asked: “What keeps us fighting? What binds us together? Our belief in our union and in our national health service.”
The union had many reasons to be proud, he continued, reminding delegates that only last week the union and its members won a “momentous” victory in the fight to protect unions against the government’s Trade Union Bill.
Delegate after delegate emphasised the need for UNISON’s One Team for Patient Care campaign, which aims to speak up with pride for the work that all NHS staff do and show that there’s no such thing as back office staff in the NHS.
As one delegate said: “We’re the backbone of the NHS not the back office.” Another, who’d moved from a job in the ambulance service to one as an administrator, urged delegates to remember the “receptionists, the administrators,” and the other workers who keep the service going. “We are an integral part of one team,” she said.
Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander (above) addressed conference, reminding delegates that “UNISON stands up for nearly 500,000 people who keep our health service running: those who do so much to keep our health service one we can all be rightly proud of.”
To loud applause, Ms Alexander condemned health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s treatment of the junior doctors as “nothing short of a disgrace’ and urged Mr Hunt “to choose talks over strikes.”
She condemned plans to cut nursing student bursaries, asking “why should a nurse pay to work a night shift?” and praised UNISON’s campaign against the cuts.
“Labour will stand side by side with UNISON to save NHS bursaries from Tory cuts,” she vowed.
Find out more about UNISON’s One Team for Patient Care campaign.
