Tory health minister Helen Whately has told an MP that student nurses who have been risking their lives on the front line of the coronavirus battle are not ‘providing a service’ – and that therefore there are no plans to give them the £5,000 bursary the Tories say they are going to re-introduce after abolishing it in in 2017.
The Tories say that the bursary:
will be given to all new and continuing degree-level nursing, midwifery and many allied health students from September 2020
But the thousands of final-year student nurses who answered the government’s call to serve on the coronavirus front line will not receive the funds.
Whately made this clear in her response to a letter from fellow Tory MP Tom Pursglove, who asked whether the government would backdate the payment for nurses who have completed courses – which includes all those who have been working in hospitals during the pandemic. Whately made it clear that no, those nurses will be left to pay off student debts of up to £60,000 without even the pittance of the £5,000 bursary – because they “are not deemed to be providing a service”:
Last week, the Tories issued another slap in the face for those same nurses when they announced that those who converted their final months of study into front-line work during the crisis will be made unemployed from 1 August – and any who haven’t been able to complete their course requirements by the end of August will be unable to qualify.
Helen Whately has been captured on video laughing as Piers Morgan read out a headline about thousands of COVID-19 deaths in care homes – and laughing as a colleague made a sick ‘joke’ about slavery in the House of Commons:
Judging by their treatment of student nurses, Ms Whately merely typifies the entire Tory government.
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This would be the same Helen Whately who recently when asked on R4 Today whether she regretted mistakes that had clearly led to tens of thousands of care home deaths, gave a very good impression of choking on her own vomit rather than saying yes…
Here’s some terms to describe the current shower of toerags in that government (Not an exhaustive list)
Incompetent
Incapable
Blundering
Negligent
Aloof
Talentless
Vexatious
Counterfeit
Malignant
And whateley abuses every single one of them descriptions. Every single one, and more. The ducking stool’s far too good for the likes of that…
I don’t think the first three in your list are applicable, as it implies their actions are not deliberate. And you forgot to list ‘sociopathic’.
Cheap
Upstart
Nasty
Tory
I’ve just posted this article on Helen’s page. Not that it will make the least difference because being so puffed up with her own self-importance, she probably won’t comprehend just how evil her behaviour is.
She’s a Tory LilacWhispers so what do you expect?
Don’t I know it! There was an interesting response from a lady who used to be a student nurse. She said, ” Helen Whately MP I’ll tell you what I did as a student nurse and I’d love to hear why you think the following doesn’t warrant back-paying all the students for their current hard work during the pandemic.
• As a student nurse I filled out all the same paperwork that staff nurse filled out on a daily basis.
• I’d bathe patients who were unable to wash themselves, I’d brush teeth, comb hair.
• Feed them, sometimes help with NG feeding.
• Take their blood pressure/temperature/heart rate/breathing rate sometimes hourly.
• You’re learning how to administer IV fluids safely and calculate flow rates.
• I’d take patients to the bathroom or bring them a commode if they can’t walk far, then empty and clean that commode and clean the patient, and maybe remake the bed if they’re had an accident.
• The patient might have a catheter and those need to be emptied multiple times per shift, plus you might need to take a sample and test it.
• The patient might have a stoma, in which case that needs to be emptied multiple times a day, and sometimes you have to change it altogether.
• You follow a staff nurse on the drug rounds to give out everyone’s medications (you can’t do this by yourself until you’re qualified but you have to learn about all the medications somehow).
• They might need wound care which involves removing old bandages, cleaning the wounds using sterile techniques then re-dressing it.
• Maybe the patient is immobile and needs help to move in bed to prevent bed sores and that needs to be done multiple times per shift.
• You have to attend doctors rounds and listen to what the doctor recommends as care and follow those instructions.
• Patients relatives phone in at least once a day and want an update on the care plan. You also need to coordinate care every shift phoning and scheduling visits from doctors, phlebotomists, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social services, speech therapist and much more.
• And that’s not taking into account having to drop everything if there’s an emergency and help with that.
• You have to do this for 8-18 patients per day depending on the ward capacity and staff level (which has only gotten worse every year because of the governments stupid actions).
• And on top of all that you have to fit in your own care: bathroom breaks, eating a meal and drinking enough water so that you don’t pass out from dehydration.
• Shifts are usually 12 hours long and you do at least 4 per week.
• Being a student nurse is not a free ride, it’s not an easy thing to do. You take on almost as much responsibility as a staff nurse.
• You obviously didn’t ask anyone’s professional opinion before giving your uneducated one. You might want to rethink that, or try doing the job yourself for a day to experience what it’s like.
• Student nurses to the NHS are free labour, by underfunding the NHS you are over-utilising student nurses.
• And now with the pandemic, they are putting their lives at risk with no pay to make up for it.
• Your 2018 salary of £77k was 3 times higher than what a newly qualified staff nurse earns, but what do you do to put your life at risk and help others at this time?!”
Whatley has blood on her hands and fingerprints all over the Care homes catastrophe.IF we look at the Canary front page article you can see that The so called opposition “The Knight and his coven” are largely in support of establishment thinking and will run with the herd… So no hope there for a change or even a credible Opposition to the policy of austerity,the handling and direction of the virus.ITS all very predictable and sad to see a great political party join the Establishment and expect the membership to follow like sheep in support of the The Labour party.and its trough swilling PLP
You are so right. There is no opposition worth the name. Vile and self serving. How do they sleep? ☮️
I’m not a fan of gervais but whatley IS the female equivalent of david brent.
I expect most people who read and follow skwawkbox are signed up to Jonathan Cook’s blog, but here’s a link to his latest article anyway:
Why the assault on a diplomat in Israel should come as no surprise
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2020-06-22/israel-diplomat-assault/
It should come as no surprise but it would come as surprise to many of those who voted for the Knight of the realm who received£50,000 from TrevorChinn who supports the Zionist apartheid state. Wonder what promises the Knight of the realm made. A Faustian pact with the Zionists well he has made them with the establishment and the right wing oligarchs in the US so one more won’t make any difference to him!!!
The following is from Aljazeera’s Rewind series, and is well worth watching if you haven’t seen it before (25 mins):
Michael Brown: The Death that Shook Ferguson
The police shooting of an unarmed black teenager sparked unrest and national debate about systemic racism.
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/rewind/2019/08/michael-brown-death-shook-ferguson-190806075143124.html
And you’ll find dozens of stories like this (in US) on the freethoughtproject website:
Cops Raid Innocent Family’s Home, Try to Kill Their Dog, Shoot 10yo Boy Instead
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-shoots-boy-instead-dog/
I remember seeing Whately ask a a question when May was PM. I thought at the time, god forbid, imagine if a brain donor like this was ever given a position of responsibility. Jesus wept!