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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Liam Thorp

Liverpool is a sea of solidarity and support for its NHS workers

Liverpool is a city that knows when to dig in and fight.

This place has seen more than its fair share of battles over the years, more than its fair share of injustices - and it knows that this is a moment to rise up and take a stand.

That's why today, each corner of this proud city is a sea of solidarity and support for its beloved NHS workers. From east to west, south to north, Liverpool has come out fighting for its health heroes in their crusade for the very future of the NHS.

READ MORE: Paramedics and ambulance staff strike in Liverpool latest as workers join picket lines

Outside the new Royal Liverpool Hospital this morning the scenes were electric. A giant crowd of nurses, healthcare assistants, admin staff and countless other health staff, each of whom knows that this is the time to make their voices heard. Those voices had to shout even louder to rise above the cacophony of deafening support from passing motorists.

There were even louder cheers as huge trucks and lorries sounded their ear-piercing horns and when one man cycled the length of the picket line punching the air in support, the reciprocal noise from those demonstrating could be heard from all around.

With flags held aloft and whistles piercing the winter air, these exhausted, fearful but determined NHS workers could be heard letting out howls of frustration that have been building up for years as they have watched the institution to which they have dedicated their lives pulled towards breaking point in front of their eyes.

NHS workers on a picket line outside Aintree University Hospital this morning (Liverpool Echo)

Towards the north of the city and those voices, that pain, that frustration, that courage could be heard with just as much clarity. A seemingly endless line of sign-waving, air-punching NHS workers were met with an equally endless orchestra of honks and cheers.

And right across Liverpool at ambulance stations from Old Swan to Fazakerley there was resolute backing for those who have done so much for us and are now making this painful decision to step out from the work they love and care so deeply about.

It was the same when nurses walked out on Thursday and on Tuesday and it will be the same if they do it again. Solidarity doesn't run out after one or two rounds of industrial action, it keeps going until the right and fair result is achieved.

And make no mistake, this is much, much more than a campaign for better pay - it is a fight for the future of the health service that all of us hold so dear. The NHS is the best thing we have, the greatest thing we have collectively achieved - and it is staring into the abyss.

Just today we reported on chaotic scenes of children sprawled over floors and queues out of the doors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Last week we covered similarly distressing scenes at an urgent treatment centre in Wirral where desperate staff were forced to put up signs warning that they were at "full capacity".

The week before we were sent grim images of patients lining the corridors of the Royal Liverpool Hospital. These scenes are being witnessed in hospitals up and down the land - and they are happening every single day.

NHS staff striking outside the New Royal Liverpool Hospital (Liverpool Echo)

Towards the north of the city and those voices, that pain, that frustration, that courage could be heard with just as much clarity. A seemingly endless line of sign-waving, air-punching NHS staff members were met with an endless orchestra of honks and cheers.

These are the people who risked it all to get us through a pandemic. They lost colleagues, got ill and still marched back into those theatres of chaos to try and save lives every day. Scousers won't forget that and nor should anyone else.

The sign of one striking worker outside a Liverpool hospital today made a simple request, it said: 'We help you, now please help us."

Those taking to their fight to the streets today will know that in Liverpool at least, this is not a question that even needs to be asked.

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