This week NHS nurses from the Midland Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT) and the Solent NHS Trust who provide health care services in the Isle of Wight community, are being joined by local NHS patients to show support for the ongoing strike action undertaken by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
Nurses were presented with a printed booklet of over 3,000 messages of support from members of the public.
“Patients on the Pickets” campaign
These messages were gathered and compiled by patient-led group Just Treatment as part of their “Patients on the Pickets” campaign, which has seen over 800 people sign up to visit their local picket lines in support of nurses.
The messages can be read here.
Lightbody: Nurses are being dangerously overworked
Christine Lightbody from East Cowes, who joined the picket line at St Mary’s hospital, said,
“Having had three major operations over the last two years I have witnessed at first hand the dire circumstances that nurses are working in, more often than not understaffed, doing 12-hour shifts, and without a single break.
“Clapping for NHS staff isn’t enough – nurses are being dangerously overworked, and current salary levels aren’t even paying the bills for so many. For the sake of both the welfare of health workers and the safety of patients, it’s time that nurses are paid fairly.”
The strike action
Following two strike days in December, the RCN announced further strike action would take place on 18th and 19th January after the government failed to resolve the dispute, in which the RCN are calling for an above-inflation pay rise as well as safe staffing levels.
This time round, members at over 60 NHS trusts and employers across England are striking.
“Solidarity packs”
Just Treatment supporters believe that the most important thing nurses can do right now to protect patients is to strike to win better pay and conditions to rescue the NHS. Dozens of volunteers have stepped up to deliver “solidarity packs” to picket lines in every region of the country.
These packs include the printed messages of support from the public as well as campaign posters, stickers and biscuits for the nurses.
First strike action in 106 years
This dispute marks the first time in the RCN’s 106-year history that the union has taken strike action.
Recent polling has shown that the strike is backed by two-thirds of the British public.
The anti-strike bill
The RCN’s walkout comes in the same week that the government is tabling an anti-strike bill which, if passed, could see striking public sector workers being sacked.
The plans have been widely condemned as anti-democratic by unions, campaigners and opposition MPs.
