Colleagues using food banks, newly qualified nurses leaving after a matter of months in the job, patients put in danger through chronic understaffing. It's clear nurses on the picket line this morning in the bitter cold of Withington, Ashton, and Wigan, are at the end of their tether.
Signs saying 'National Hell Service', 'claps don't pay our bills' and 'safe staffing saves lives' came with chants begging for more staff and better pay. Some had just finished working a gruelling night shift, some were other members of hospital staff on shift, but this wasn't going to stop them showing solidarity with their striking colleagues. The constant noise of car horns blaring showed clearly whose side the public of Greater Manchester are on.
This was the first time members of the Royal College of Nursing had walked out in Greater Manchester in its 106 year history. And it's not a decision they take at all lightly. The nursing strikes follow mass walkouts from other staff in the NHS, including ambulance workers last week.
