Nurses on the FRONT LINE AT CHRISTMAS

A strike looms as the festive season approaches

- MOIRA HOLDEN

Our nurses earnt the grateful thanks of a nation when they put their lives on the line during the COVID-19 crisis.

But any gratitude from the government did not go far enough. Pay and intolerable pressures on staff have forced nurses to the brink, and now, for the first time in their history, they have voted to strike.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has demanded a 17.6% pay rise, claiming the average pay for nurses fell by 6% between 2011 and 2021, once inflation is taken into account. But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned this level of pay rise is ‘not affordable’. Meanwhile, failure to recruit has led to some hospitals forking out £2,500 per shift to pay for agency nurses. And even if the government target of recruiting 50,000 nurses succeeds, a shortfall of 38,000 could still remain, jeopardising patient safety.

The strikes are set to take place on 15 and 20 December, in the midst of winter. Sickness or childbirth never take a day off at Christmas, so patients rely on nurses to give up their own festivities to care for them.

Woman speaks to a nurse who tells us what it’s like to work on Christmas Day and gives us her thoughts on strike action.

‘WE HAVE TO MAKE A STAND AT SOME POINT’

Anna Kent, 41, lives in Dorset with her daughter, Aisha, six. She has worked as a midwife and a nurse in hospitals for the past 20 years.