‘PEOPLE aren’t dying because nurses are striking, nurses are striking because people are dying,’ RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said yesterday.
‘Today’s record number of unfilled nurse jobs cannot be left to get worse, pay nursing staff fairly to turn this around and give the public the care they deserve,’ she added.
A mass picket all morning outside UCLH hospital in central London was followed by a march on Downing Street, which departed from the hospital at 3pm and received huge support all along the route.
Striking nurses stood on the steps outside on the busy Euston Road with placards, flags and banners and every time buses stopped opposite the picket in support, a huge roar came from the picket line in response.
‘We are the NHS!, Rishi Sunak here us shout, pay us properly or get out! Whose NHS Our NHS 1,2,3,4,5 – keep our NHS Alive! Nurses are for life, not just for Covid! Stephen Barclay hear us Shout, pay us properly or get out! What do we want Fair Pay How do we get it Strike! Protect the NHS, we are the NHS!. Claps don’t pay the Bills. No Ifs, no Buts, No NHS Cuts!’
Speaking on the picket line at UCLH, RCN member David Hendy told News Line: ‘I’ve worked for the NHS for 14 years, I’m a chemology and chemotherapy nurse. I’m striking today for fair pay and safer staffing.
‘We’ve had a 20% pay cut since 2010, nurses are leaving the profession because of the financial crisis and poor working conditions. There are 50,000 nurse vacancies across the NHS, with 10,000 just in London.
‘The new Tory law is a new low for the Tory government and another erosion of workers’ rights.
‘We are providing a minimum service, we do that all the time. The government is not interested in the non-strike days when we are short-staffed.
‘We should all be coming out together to defend the NHS, our working conditions, our right to strike and most importantly, for patient safety. The TUC has to call a general strike, what are we waiting for? We’ve had 12 years of Tory austerity, when are we going to fight with all out power?’
On the powerful picket line at King’s College Hospital in south London, children’s Intensive Care ward nurse Gen Ives, said: ‘There has been ongoing, deliberate, systemic underfunding by the Tory Party for years.
‘It started with Jeremy Hunt. They have all got shares in private equity. They are making money off this. They don’t need to rely on the NHS.
‘But in the future, if you get diabetes, if you get hit by a car, we will end up like America and you will have to remortgage your house to get treatment. We need better pay because nurses are leaving because of the condition. We need fair pay, to entice them to stay.
‘Why would you stay and work on the breadline, and kill yourself day in and day out with an incredible work load that is far too much, when you can get better pay doing something easier?’
Nurse Ellie Cooper said: ‘I’m here because I don’t think I have ever known conditions in the NHS as bad as this, morale is really low, people can’t afford to feed their families, conditions on the ward are atrocious. We need huge investment to make the NHS safe, so that people get the care that they need and deserve, we need everyone to join in this fight.’
