Nurses taking part in the biggest walkout in NHS history say staff moral is 'really low' as they recalled how an 85-year-old woman waited 52 hours for a bed. It came as nurses returned to the picket line on Tuesday (December 20) in a second day of strikes over pay.
Cardiology nurse Believe Tamesere, who was also on the picket line at Nottingham City Hospital, said the elderly woman endured the wait on Monday (December 19), on the day when a system-wide 'critical incident' was declared across the Nottinghamshire NHS.
“Yesterday I was at work and there was a 85-year-old woman waiting for 52 hours for a bed," he said. "It’s shocking and heartbreaking. Something must be done about this. That is why I am striking today.”
Read more: Nottingham nurses say staffing 'a joke' as second strike takes place
The sad case follows that of 95-year-old veteran Stanley Solomons, who was forced to wait 26 hours in a Queen’s Medical Centre corridor for a hospital bed several weeks ago. Staff at three Nottinghamshire NHS organisations voted to strike last month.
These are Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Union the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is calling on the Government to give nurses a pay increase of 19.2% - 5% above the rate of retail price inflation. But the Government says that the money would have to come out of the budget for frontline NHS care, making it harder to clear its Covid-related backlog.
Health minister Will Quince said the pay demand was “totally unaffordable” for the Government. Other nurses, meanwhile, said winter pressures had taken a toll on the morale of staff.
Bex Sneyd, a heart failure specialist nurse, said: “We are seeing long waits for procedures, too many patients, not enough beds, the Emergency Department is absolutely full to the brim.
"The staff are absolutely run ragged, it is absolutely non stop for them in ED. It isn’t a decision any of us took lightly, we don’t want to do this but we’ve been forced into the situation.”
Rachel Humphreys, renal specialist nurse, said staff morale was “really low”. She added: “The critical incident was declared before the strike and that’s a reflection of everything happening currently in the healthcare system.
“I never expected anything like this to happen but we are doing this for our patients and ourselves. Staff morale is really low. Lots of nurses including myself don’t feel we have a good enough work life balance.”
On Monday, officials at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and the City Hospital - declared their third critical incident in just six months. It means some operations and outpatient appointments may be postponed to “prioritise patients with the most urgent clinical need”.
NUH is seeing high numbers of patients with the flu and falls coming into the accident and emergency department. The incident was extended just hours later to cover the wider Nottinghamshire NHS.
Sarah-Leigh Mcmahon, regional organiser for RCN, said: “It is unlikely these nurses would’ve gone on strike four years ago. A lot has happened including Covid and they can’t tolerate it any longer.
“Many of them can’t even afford to come to work anymore. The impact on patient safety is terrible. The stories are heartbreaking.
"They go onto shift fearing there won’t be enough of them, they fear for their professional safety if something goes wrong, they are scared, run down, exhausted and angry. Can the government afford not to pay our nursing staff fairly? Because they are leaving in droves.”
Last Thursday (December 15), 530 nurses and healthcare assistants were absent from NUH due to the first day of strike action, resulting in almost 1,500 procedures being postponed. At Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, 401 staff were absent
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “The RCN’s demands are unaffordable during these challenging times and would take money away from frontline services while they are still recovering from the impact of the pandemic. I’m open to engaging with the unions on how to make the NHS a better place to work.”
He added patients should continue to come forward for emergency and urgent medical care. Some East Midlands Ambulance Service workers, including paramedics, are also due to take part in the first day of a separate strike on Wednesday (December 21).
The co-ordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions, Unison, GMB and Unite, will affect non-life threatening calls only. It could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to
The government has offered an average increase of 4.75% with a minimum of £1,400 a year and says it is not prepared to go beyond this. However, trade unions point out that the 4.75% rate is less than half the current rate of inflation, therefore amounting to a substantial real-terms pay cut. They also argue that NHS workers have already experienced 12 years of real-terms cuts to their wages.
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