The UK is in the midst of a social and economic crisis
and this time the NHS nurses are on strike.
We see nurses who have children mainly going to food banks.
We see so many children in poverty every day in A&E.
We're watching the disintegration of our public sector.
It's like a war like situation where you constantly put mental stress
on yourself for 12 hours in a row and I couldn't do it anymore.
Amongst the discontent of a country whose inflation keeps on growing,
even emergency departments, including intensive
and cancer care, have joined in on this strike.
“We are the NHS!”
In London alone there are over 12 picket lines at various hospitals.
“6, 7, 8, 9, 10, if you don’t we will strike again!”
The Real News Network
was on the streets to speak to workers at picket lines across the capital.
Really what you're seeing now
is an outpouring of disdain and distrust for the government.
They've made cuts to our bursaries, cuts to our services, cuts to our pay.
20% lost in real terms over the last ten years under this Tory government.
So 75% of my shifts are understaffed.
I often get asked to do double jobs running a shift
and taking care of patients.
I'm not enabled by this system anymore
by the NHS to take proper care of my patients.
A very clear demonstration of the way that we aren’t able to give safe care,
is the number of nurses that we are
currently under-recruited by 47,000 at the last count.
47,000 nurses that are nowhere,
because people have left after the pandemic because
young people are not able to get bursaries or funding to study nursing
and people don't want to come into nursing
because actually it's a very difficult profession to be in.
It's under-recognised. It's underpaid.
People are leaving to go and work
somewhere else where they're going to get more money.
Which is a massive loss and a lot of those nurses are very skilled,
nurses who, you know, we need to support the junior nurses.
“How do we get it?”
“Strike!”
It's sad.
It's sad when I kind of tell my colleagues,
Oh, I'm starting my course to train to be a nurse in September,
and they're saying:
‘I can't see myself doing this for more than five years.’
‘Good luck to you.’
It is sad knowing that people who used to love this
aren't doing it anymore and they're going to leave.
The government have offered the nurses a 5% pay rise.
Whereas some unions have accepted this offer
others reject it and vow to continue industrial action.
I would love for this to end.
I can't believe I'm here
back on the picket line today after the talks and the offer.
It’s so tragic that we're actually outside here today.
I don't want to be out here. I want to be in there looking after the patients.
I’m a critical care nurse, so I look after people in intensive care.
I look after people who have just had cardiac surgery.
And the compromises that I'm seeing now are putting patients
potentially at risk of catastrophic,
injury or death.
And it breaks my heart
to say that in the sixth richest country on the planet, in the 21st century
the care in our health service has been so compromised
by cuts and the Tory administration that we have to go on strike
to try and get pay restoration.
“Power, power, power!”
Care? Well, care is very broad, but it's looking after your patients,
being there after their surgeries, before their surgeries.
Supporting them through an emergency department.
supporting them through end of life pathways and letting them die
in a compassionate way.
We have differences in that.
You know, we're seeing it often that we're not giving that care anymore
And that's what's really hurtful as a nurse.
I didn't go through three years of education
and register as a registered nurse to give that care.
“We are the nurses!”
“The mighty mighty nurses!”
“1, 2, 3 , 4, 5!”
“Keep our NHS alive”
Absolutely.
I've been on the [tannoy]
Not the tannoy that’s in A&E.
The megaphone today.
“What do we want?”
“Fair pay!”
“When do we want it?”
“Now!”
It feels like the NHS is being pushed into privatization.
But I don't want that to happen.
There are so many patients that wouldn't be able to afford the basics of care.
“No nurses!”
“No NHS”
My great grandma was poorly over Christmas.
Just before Christmas.
And she was in A&E in a Kent Hospital.
She was in an A&E and she was there for two and a half days on a ventilator,
before getting to a ward.
That is how bad...Like no one of any age,
should have to stay in A&E for 48 hours plus before they can get a bed
on the wards and the beds...the whole A&E was piled up.
It's not it's not safe for the patients.
There's no way...If there was an emergency, they couldn’t get an emergency trolley
and a defib to the patients in the second row.
“Safe staffing!”
“Saves lives!”
I’m an RCN member and I work bank.
I retired early at 65, actually
because I was no longer prepared to carry
the can for unsafe conditions.
“Safe staffing!”
“Saves lives!”
“Safe staffing!”
“Saves lives!”
The shortages are so severe that I'm continuously asked
to come and help out on wards.
Morale is at rock bottom.
The only thing that's sustaining us at the moment
is the unity among people
who are campaigning to improve conditions.
But other than that, it's appalling.
“No nurses!”
“No NHS!”
“No nurses!”
“No NHS!”
Previously, years ago
we didn’t strike because we felt we had a duty to our patients
to not strike.
Now it's the converse.
We have a duty to our patients and to our public
to strike in order to highlight unsafe conditions.