‘Keep nurses working – keep patients safe,’ Royal College of Nursing General Secretary Beverley Malone told 1,000 cheering nurses at Westminster Central Hall yesterday.
‘As people on the front line you know the crisis we are facing’ she continued, ‘students can’t get jobs, wards are being closed and services are being cut.
‘To date 13,000 nurses’ posts have been designated for elimination in the last six months alone.
‘Our response at our annual congress, when the Secretary of State addressed us, was not orchestrated it was a spontaneous reaction, it was natural, it represented the hurt we are all feeling.’
Malone added: ‘Today we can defend our patients by lobbying our politicians. Today, we have an opportunity to make our case and offer our solutions.
‘Today we have the chance to say with a voice that is dignified as well as determined, professional as well as passionate, keep nurses working and keep patients safe.’
Introducing Malone to the packed meeting, RCN England Regional Director Tom Samford said to loud cheers: ‘We put our communication skills training to good use when the Health Secretary spoke at our conference two weeks ago.
‘Let’s deliver the same message to the country today. We need serious action to overcome the deficits crisis in the NHS.’
At the same time as the RCN was holding its rally and lobby of parliament, UNISON health workers were also lobbying parliament.
RCN and UNISON members called for trade union action to resolve the crisis in the NHS.
Sandwell Hospital RCN member Tyrone Roberts said: ‘I would strike as long as emergency services are covered. The whole country would support such action. We are working harder and harder and it’s getting worse and worse.’
Nursing student Danielle North from Suffolk College, Ipswich said: ‘It’s about time the unions took action. We should have a strike throughout the whole country. I think it is only now that the government is realising that we are not just going to sit back and take it.’
Helen Walker, RCN Worcester Royal Hospital, said: ‘We are losing 720 members of staff. I’ve never been an activist, but now’s the time for action.’
RCN member Premi Bonomally from Dereford Hospital in Plymouth said: ‘We have a very well run breast cancer ward which they are going to close down.’
Gareth Phillips, RCN Council member for Wales said: ‘I’ve never seen nurses so angry. To say our reaction to Patricia Hewitt was staged suggests the government is burying its head in the sand over the issue.’
Colin White, from Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust, said: ‘We should get rid of Patricia Hewitt and get someone who knows about healthcare.’
UNISON member Lisa Zappone, a sister in a children’s ward at St Mary’s, said: ‘I’ve had a letter saying my job is at risk. There are five sisters’ posts which they want to cut down to two. The union should call a one day general strike to support the health care profession.’
UNISON member Mike Hulin, a general porter in Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, said: ‘We should put pressure on the union to call national strike action to keep our NHS public.’
RCN member Nicola Plant, from Sandwell Hospital in Birmingham, said: ‘There should definitely be a one day general strike to defend the NHS. We need the public to fight for us and yes, nurses should strike. No-one is safe, everyone is under attack.’
• Second news story
GM WALK OUT
Thousands of workers walked out yesterday, shutting down the Ellesmere Port Vauxhall factory in Cheshire, following news that GM Europe was definitely planning to cut 1,000 jobs at the plant.
Trade union officials said the spontaneous walkout was sparked by ‘insensitive’ and ‘extremely unhelpful’ comments by GM Europe President Carl Peter Forster.
Transport and General Workers Union general secretary Tony Woodley said: ‘The walkout by Ellesmere Port workers is entirely understandable, in view of the insensitive comments by the president of GM Europe.’
A TGWU spokesman added: ‘We didn’t organise the walkout but it is understandable’.
Workers were angered by remarks made by Forster in Germany that the only way forward was to cut one shift from the plant, which means the loss of 1,000 jobs.
Amicus trade union official Roger Maddison said Foster’s remarks were ‘extremely unhelpful during critical ongoing negotiations between the company and trade unions in Germany.’
Earlier, TGWU general secretary Woodley had attacked Foster’s claim that ‘Britain’s more flexible labour market’ argued for making any car industry job cuts here.
Woodley appealed to Blair, for ‘proper employment laws’, saying: ‘The president of General Motors Europe has spelt out what the T&G has been warning about for years: Britain is the soft touch of Europe when it comes to taking away workers’ jobs.’