Despite health service measures to encourage women to attend cervical cancer screening sessions, the number of women being screened has dropped significantly, with the number of women aged 25-64 dying from cervical cancer increasing by 6.4% during 2007. Research in December 2008 has also shown that there is a clear link between income and cervical […]
Conference motions
This conference believes that a safe working environment is a right for everyone. There is a requirement under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health & Safety at Work Act 2003 and the Fire Scotland Act 2005 for employers to provide adequate resources to ensure that the workplace has taken […]
This Conference reiterates the importance of health and safety at work as a key concern for our members working in the health service and continues to place this at the heart of our organising and negotiating agenda for health workers. Conference notes that needlestick injuries are a common issue of concern for many staff groups […]
Conference welcomes the progress made in effecting Motion 59 from Conference 2008. The Service Group Executive has established an effective sub group which has catalogued a series of recommendations to ensure with the compliance with the protocol raised in 2004 in line with Rule D 2.9.5. The Health sector has also fed into the overarching […]
Conference passed a motion in 2006 that asked the Service Group Executive to call on the NHS Staff Council to address the lack of increase to subsistence and overnight allowances for staff. The motion requested that as a matter of urgency, they consider: i.Raising subsistence allowances to the level they would have reached if year-on-year […]
It is estimated that 10-15% of women suffering gynaecological problems have endometriosis, a chronic and debilitating disease which impacts on women’s lives, causing pain, heavy periods and infertility. The majority of cases are diagnosed when women are between the ages of 25 and 40 – when they are likely to be part of the working […]
Conference notes with disgust that many NHS employers contract Security Services from Security firms which pay staff on the national minimum wage and/or zero hours contracts often with little continuity of base. Conference notes that it is difficult to organise successfully within these employers. Conference believes that NHS employers have a duty to ensure that […]
Health Conference notes that East Lancashire PCT proposes to recommission the Supported Living Service for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, which will be the outsourcing of this service to either independent provider(s), or following the social enterprise model, (unless there is a successful in-house Trust bid), for some or all of the 32 houses affected by […]
The last decade has seen a significant increase in the nursing workforce; with a combination of new nurses trained, people returning to nursing, and massive overseas recruitment, whilst the opposite has occurred in midwifery. Back in 2006, due to financial difficulties in the NHS, vacancy freezes in a number of Trusts led to significant numbers […]
Conference notes the incredibly moving contribution last year from Dorothy Ngoma, of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi: an organisation set up with the support of UNISON. The hardships faced by our colleagues in health care in the developing world and the patients they serve are immense, complicated, saddening but avoidable with […]
Conference notes that in July 2008, the government set out its vision for the NHS in England over the next 10 years in Lord Darzi’s ‘High Quality Care for All.’ This was published alongside a draft NHS Constitution and a staff document entitled A High Quality Workforce. Conference welcomes the positive aspects of the review […]
Conference notes the threats to democracy and civil harmony posed by the posturing and mantra of the racist British National Party (BNP.) Membership of the BNP is wholly incompatible with public service, and this is especially so for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors who have a unique role in caring for vulnerable people on a […]
Conference notes that under the banner of Keep the NHS Working UNISON continues to campaign against the damaging effects caused by the marketisation of NHS services and the growing role of the private sector in delivering healthcare. This is particularly important at a time of global financial crisis where governments across the world have been […]
Conference notes that across the UK, Health workers are experiencing the effects of changes to the funding and organisation of the NHS and the structures for delivering healthcare. There are increasing differences in the way in which the four UK administrations choose to organise health care and in England there is increasing use of the […]
Conference notes the recent pilot organising project in the Greater London Region and congratulates the region on their work to encourage different and innovative approaches to organising health workers. Conference notes that the project, based on the model used by the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, highlighted the dedication of health workers to […]