After the Royal College of Nursing announced that its members hit for the first time During the fortnight before Christmas, Matt Smith, an advanced practical nurse in a children’s intensive care unit in London, shares why he plans to Stop the job.
I never thought that as a nurse I would go on strike, but the mistreatment of UK healthcare workers over the last decade means that this is now our only option. The nurses’ strike has been a long time coming.
I have worked in hospitals in London since 2004 and during this time my salary has not kept up with inflation. With wages stagnating, more staff are leaving the National Health Service, putting more pressure on those who stay. The job is more stressful and exhausting, nurses have to work extra shifts on their days off to pay their bills and then get sick from it.
The nurses are running low and there is no reward for it. You are tired all the time; Some days I come to work dreading what it will be like. We are exhausted and morale low.
It is also becoming very difficult to retain staff. The ward I work in had a lot of European nurses; since Brexit we have had a big drawdown – many have left the UK. Others go to other professions. When healthcare workers can be paid more working in a shop, with a better work-life balance, then the system is clearly broken.
Patient safety is at risk on a daily basis. You see it with patients who are stuck in ambulances and not getting proper treatment. Or those stuck in the hospital longer, having complications.
The nurses are fighting. When I started, there was never any talk of food banks. Now you have hospitals installing them because the staff can’t afford to buy the essentials. This has gotten worse, especially now with the cost of living crisis. I can’t afford to live near the hospital, and [this year] travel in london up 4-5%. Then there is the rising cost of food, gasoline, energy.
The payout prize this year was ridiculous. As a senior nurse, mine was 1.8%, well below the current level of inflation. It’s a pay cut. In the last 10 years we have had a 20% profit loss. We are not asking for a pay raise, we are asking for the pay to be restored to get back to where it had been. Awarding 5% above inflation will go some way to correcting the historic pay cuts we have endured over the last decade with the Tories’ austerity measures before and now with the cost of living crisis.
I went into the infirmary to take care of people, and going on strike was something I never thought I would be doing. But now we’re at the point where it’s the last thing we can do. Patients are at risk on a daily basis, and if something doesn’t change, it will get worse. The NHS is on the brink.
We know that we are not the only ones suffering, and we recognize that some people will find what we are asking upsetting. It’s not about getting a raise, it’s about restoring salary. It’s about keeping the NHS running.
