As you say, "everyone loves Nurses" (even me ... well, up to a point)!
On the other hand, biomeds have always tended to be very much in the background, as it were. Out of sight is out of mind. They tend to be gentle types (and there's nothing wrong with that), and not very vocal.
Geeks, even, who rarely fight their corner. Most are interested mainly in the
kit (and I count myself among them). And what's wrong with that? Isn't that what the job is meant to be all about? But I would say that pay (that is,
salaries) for regular NHS biomeds is about right these days, is it not?
But as for Agency Techs, that's an entirely different matter. In my experience, rates have hardly improved (and sometimes work out at even less than before, in real terms) since the early 1990's. Why is that, I hear you ask? Probably because some of the blokes are prepared to work for peanuts, I would say.
And it's right there that the Laws of Supply and Demand break down. Biomeds (whether regularly employed, agency types, or whatever) tend to knuckle down and "make things fit", rather than being
stroppy and saying things like "we're not doing that", or "we're under resourced". Has anyone ever heard of biomeds going on strike? No, I thought not.
There have been many cases where "monkeys" have been taken on (it's cheaper that way), only to have it all end in tears. This is a shame, especially in cases where the department had not used Agency Techs before, and now they've been put off for ever.
On the other hand (and happily), some other departments get it right the second (third, fourth) time around. By the way, it may not be commonly known that some NHS biomed departments remain heavily dependent upon agency staff. It's almost as if they are
preferred. Well, at least they can be got rid off easily enough when the time comes (unlike, of course, permanent staffers).
Is
this then the Future for Biomed? That is, hire techs as and when required to do the
grunt work, whilst maintaining a core of permanent
lifers to attend to all the meetings, politics, box-ticking, target chasing ... and whatever else precious time gets wasted on these days.
