NHS strike action: Staff from Queen Alexandra Hospital take a stand with the nation in a walkout

Thousands of nurses across the country have taken action, as part of a two-day strike – as the ongoing pay and staff disputes with the government are set to continue, with dates confirmed for NHS staff in Portsmouth to further strike next month.

A picket line of dozens of nurses and staff was set up at the front of Queen Alexandra today, all of whom were waving banners demanding better pay and increased staffing – and support was received by drivers who were honking to show unity with the staff.

The initial strikes amongst nurses, doctors and ambulance staff began at the end of last year, but this is the first time that staff have stepped out of their places of work to stand together to make improvements to the system.

Trade unions representing NHS staff have been in debate with the government about pay and staff shortages for a long time and over the last few years, shortages have been so significant that many hospitals and trusts are inundated with patients, and they can no longer keep up.

Nicole Bonner, who is an advanced clinical practitioner for the children's emergency department, said: ‘It is such a mix of things, it is about trying to get safe staffing levels. I have worked in the emergency department for 20 years and I have seen the ratio of patients to staff increase so it is about safe levels and protecting our colleagues and part of that is making it attractive to the next generation of nurses.

‘On a personal level, I am having to use food banks, I am struggling with child care and paying the bills. It is a real struggle as a single-income household.

‘When there isn’t a doctor on the department, it is me, all of the responsibility is on me for every child that walks through the doors, whether it is a broken arm or having to perform resuscitation, but I don’t get paid the same as a doctor.’

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Sue Jones, 54, is an advanced clinical practitioner and has been in her profession for the last 38 years. She has borne witness to multiple staff sacrificing their career to pursue other things due to low income and an increase in unsafe staffing levels.

The 54-year-old said: ‘Nurses who’ve said “I just can’t do it any more” have gone to do other things.

‘If you take a trained nurse off of a ward then you increase patient mortality. The more nurses you take away, the greater chance of patients dying.

‘Nurses are fabulous human beings, we’ve got transferable skills and if we don’t get paid a sensible wage here we’re going to go and do something else.’

The Royal College of Nursing union has seen the record numbers of NHS staff vote to go on strike in their biggest strike ballot – and seemingly, the battle will continue as the staff at the Queen Alexandra picket line have already established dates for their next two day strike action, which will take place on February 8 and 9.

Tina Ferry, 59, a nurse in the emergency department, said: ‘The thing that really sits with me is I asked a plumber to come and look at my bathroom to put a new toilet in and he said he could do the work for £2,000 so he can replace my toilet and charge me £50 an hour, but I could keep his heart going and I am scraping £17.’

Sam Whitfield, 43, a sister in the emergency department, said: ‘As a nurse in charge of that shift, I have to allocate staff to areas so that means I have to decide what areas are under staffed, I have to move staff around as needed within the department.

‘I know in the emergency department staff are working many extra hours just to try and help with the staffing but this then increases their exhaustion.

‘We are quite often working with 16 on a shift, the rest of the hospital try to send other nurses to support us but that depletes the other wards. It is not just about getting more nurses, it is about the skill that the nurses are trained and whether they are trained to deal with the emergency department.’

The staff were all wearing tops to signify that they stand in unity, and one individual was carrying a sign that said ‘claps don’t pay our bills’.

Sam also said that they are not striking in protest against the hospital or the trust, but that it is the government that this national walkout is aimed at in a bid to get them to understand the severity of the situation.

Zoe Daly, 36, senior research nurse, said: ‘We’re the people in the hospitals, we know exactly what it’s like, and believe me we would not be striking if we didn’t feel like it was coming to the last straw.

‘I’m fighting for the likes of people who can’t afford to live, even though they are the really important backbone of the NHS.

‘In the RCN we have voted to strike before but there was never a big enough uptake, so normally it was about 20 percent of people voted yes and the rest voted no. This time it was a massive proportion that voted to strike and that’s abnormal - that shows people that something’s wrong.’