I have been a qualified nurse for 3 years spent in acute settings. This is the 'straw that broke the camel's back' and why I want to leave the NHS. The shambles of the 'new' Agenda for Change (AfC), Knowledge Servive Framework, which is meant to reward staff for their knowlege & skills, has blocked my path to promotion in the ward I work. The amalgamation of old D and E grades into one Band 5, means that as a low band 5 (D grade equivalent), I am restricted to moving up one increment a year regardless of whether the skills and knowledge i have are above and beyond. I am unable to be shortlisted for a promotion to a higher band 5 (E grade equivalent) vancancy on my ward currently, even though I am already doing the job, because under AfC I am already in Band 5. Meaning only external higher Band 5 nurses can apply for this job regardless of their experience. I think this is yet another goverment cost saving ploy, from which the patient will ultimatley bear the consequences

fedupof NHS, bristol, uk

I am due to qualify as a registered nurse this summer and the lack of jobs terrifies me, as I have chosen to study for the degree the NHS have paid for my tuition fees and given me roughly 200 pound per month over the course of my training. Diploma students get even more money than this and receive roughly 400 pounds a month as their bursary is not means tested. Not only is this money being lost when those who are fully trained move overseas, but the drop out rate is also incredibly high and none of this money is paid back by those students who drop out! There were roughly 120 students that started the course when I did and there are now only 40 left, to make these figures worse there is not only one intake per year but two. The entry process for nurse training needs to be reviewed in an attempt to reduce these drop out rates, the NHS would save much more money by doing this than they do by making the likes of porters and phlebotomists redundant.

Annie , Oxford, England

Hospital consultants and doctors in the NHS are now amoung the highes paid in the world thanks to that fool Gordan Brown throwing hard earnt tax payers money into the NHS without a clue what that cash was being used for. To top it all those same consultants and doctors do only about half the work load they did when Labour come to power ten years ago. What a sorry mess this government has made of our NHS and almost every thing eles since coming to power. Roll on the next election.

D Case, Newquay, UK

It is not simply a case of poor medical policies and practices in UK, (the NHS appears to have gradually degenerated over at least the last decade), nor simply poor management and leadership, (although the NHS, PCTs and hospitals appear to display very poor financial control), but given the pay increases over the last decade it is also a case that greed is very much part of the equation. If, for example, GPs are now paid something in the order of £100,000 per annum for not working any longer than the 3 or 4 or in some cases 5 days a week from 0900 to 1730 or thereabouts with no call-outs and no weekend work that they did say 5 years and more ago, placing additional strain on hospital A&E departments, and if consultants are on six-figure salaries and all other medical salaries have also increased it does not leave much to be spent on patients, hence ward and bed closures. I do not blame anyone with professional and vocational or even academic qualifications leaving this sinking island.

Ken, Suffolk, England

I dont blame them.
British society is like a toilet - with no roof, and constant grey skies raining on you.

Joe, UK,