Nurses across Britain went on strike on Thursday demanding a raise and better working conditions, the first such walkout by nurses in the history of the country’s revered National Health Service. Despite freezing temperatures across much of Britain, nurses picketed outside a number of hospitals as the 12-hour strike began. Wearing hats and gloves and holding signs that read “Staffing shortages cost lives,” they called for higher pay and more workers.
Nurses will still be staffing the most vital services, such as intensive care units and chemotherapy, dialysis, and some paediatric services, but non-urgent medical attention will be much less available.
Hospitals and other health facilities say that they have tried to manage schedules to ensure the safety of patients during the action. The nursing strike is one of a series of industrial actions taking place across Britain this month. The strike comes as the NHS is in crisis, with declining working conditions for clinical staff and amid the spillover pressures of the pandemic.
There have been record delays for ambulance response times and a major backlog for medical procedures, among many other problems. The nurse’s union, the Royal College of Nursing, has asked for a 19 per cent raise, noting that small increases in the past have made it hard to attract and retain workers. Nurses are leaving the profession at high rates, citing low pay and staff shortages that force them to work long hours, according to union representatives. The government has said such a raise is unaffordable and has offered a much smaller increase. Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said in a video statement ahead of the strike that her members were “committed to our patients and we always will be”.
But, she added: “When as a society did we stop valuing the very basics of human care and dignity? This is not who we are. It is not unreasonable to demand better.” The union came to the decision to strike after polling its more than 300,000 members, who make up about a third of the health service’s work force.
(New York Times News Service)
