NURSES were yesterday striking at many hospitals in England, all but one health board in Wales and the whole of Northern Ireland, for the first time in 106 years of the RCN.
Strikes were not called in Scotland to allow members to consider a new pay offer of 7.5%.
‘We’re striking because things need to change,’ staff nurse and RCN member Nat Dann told News Line on the lively picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster, yesterday morning.
She continued: ‘We’re overworked, understaffed, underpaid and under appreciated.
‘We have to win. Everybody should support each other. It’s everybody NHS. All the unions should defend the NHS. I agree with a general strike.’
Practice development nurse and RCN member Ethnea Vaughan said: ‘The government are just not listening to us.
‘They are refusing to talk about pay. They’re hiding behind the pay review body.
‘I’m here because it’s about pay but also about patient safety.
‘We’re losing staff constantly because they cannot afford to continue being nurses. 83% of shifts have reduced staff on them which obviously impacts on patient care.
‘It’s about the NHS. We do have the support of the public. It would be nice if we had more unions coming out together.’
Anita Roberts, a nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital, told News Line: ‘We want better pay for nurses to provide a decent standard of living.
‘There are people leaving the profession who are very dedicated to the job but are forced to leave because they can’t live on the pay we get.
‘We will fight until we improve the lot of nurses, and we’re determined to win.’
Striking nurses at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, said they have to have a pay rise.
RCN member Doriel Joseph told News Line: ‘It’s a very difficult job we do, and nurses are leaving the profession.
‘People are not willing to come back once they leave, because the pay is not good.
‘The government are not willing to listen and hide behind the pay review not to pay nurses.
‘There should be negotiations to sort this out. But the government are not willing to listen to us.
‘We do not want to go on strike, especially in the freezing weather.
‘I hope this strike action will make the government sit up and take notice. That’s why we are on strike.’
RCN member Melissa Pardillo said: ‘We have endured enough. We deserve better pay and safe staffing.
‘People have seen us work very hard, during the pandemic. But what they don’t realise, is that we work hard every day, even before the pandemic.
‘Its very disrespectful that the government are not willing to talk with the RCN.
‘It shows that they don’t care about the NHS.
‘Not taking care of the NHS means that the government are not taking care of people in this country.’
Andy Worthington, also spoke to the News Line and said: ‘It’s great to see so many people supporting the nurses’ cause for better pay.’
Earlier, RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen told BBC Breakfast, Health Secretary Steve Barclay was ‘disingenuous’ when he claimed his door was always open for discussions, but that was only the case for non-pay issues.
She stressed: ‘20% has been lost in our nurses’ pay over this past decade and they are owed a decent wage.’
Calling on the government to ‘do the decent thing’, Cullen added: ‘We need to stand up for our health service, we need to find a way of addressing those over seven million people that are sitting on waiting lists.
‘And how are we going to do that? By making sure we have got the nurses to look after our patients, not with 50,000 vacant posts, and with it increasing day by day.’
Health Minister Maria Caulfield accepted ‘it is difficult’ living on a nurse’s wage, but said that a 19% pay rise ‘is an unrealistic ask’.
St Thomas’ lunchtime rally
HUNDREDS of nurses and their supporters assembled outside St Thomas’ Hospital on Westminster Bridge for a lunchtime rally yesterday.
Leonie Callaghan, a specialist nurse in the community, spoke to News Line.
‘I’m here because I think enough is enough. I don’t even want to be on strike but because of the wages and conditions we have no choice.
‘We’ve been forced into this by the government. Patients have to come first. Patient care is supreme.
‘That’s why we have to be here on strike. Patient care is suffering because people are overworked and lots are leaving. So we can’t do the job as well as we would like to.
‘We were good enough to be clapped. We should be good enough to be paid properly. Two thirds of my salary goes on childcare alone.’
Anita Macro, a District Nurse said: ‘I’ve been a nurse for 40 years. Most of that time we’ve had low pay and working conditions which force you to lower your standards.
‘For the job we do we should be properly paid. We look after people from the moment they’re born till when they pass away. And we have families of our own to maintain as well.’
Murad Ali, a call centre worker for NHS 111, and a GMB rep, said: ‘I’m here to show solidarity with my nursing colleagues. We want proper pay and conditions throughout the NHS, with wages that keep up with inflation, and to make sure its not privatised, and remains free to use.’
Yemi Lowo, a member of Waterloo RMT branch also came to bring support.
