NURSES from the Royal College of Nursing are taking part in their second day of industrial action calling for better pay and working conditions for their staff.
 
This comes a day after the heads of the North’s Health and Social Care Trusts’ said that they were “deeply distressed” at the situation in our hospitals and set out a series of mitigations that they hope will alleviate the pressures including patients leaving hospital no later than 48 hours after confirmation they are medically fit for discharge and where a suitable placement which can meet their needs is available; a maximum limit of three hours for ambulance handover at all Emergency Departments; and patients being moved to chairs rather than beds when they are medically fit to leave hospitals.

Responding to the statement, neonatal intensive care nurse, Pat Lawlor said that he personally feels that these plans from the Health Trusts’ will be difficult to implement.
 
“I think it is a very difficult decision for the Trusts’ and that it will be very hard to implement,” he said.
 
“We have ambulances who can’t get away from the Emergency Departments because they can’t offload patients and I don’t know how they are going to limit that to three hours.”
 
Reflecting on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stating that the RCN’s demands were unaffordable, Pat said that he believed he was talking nonsense.
 
“If you ask any nurse here, they will tell you that it is complete and utter nonsense. It has been well documented, and we all know that there is plenty of money.
 
“The government found money during the pandemic, they found money to bail out the bankers and when we look over the last two years, the wealth of the one per cent richest in the UK increased massively so the government need to tax the rich. 
 
“If they put an extra one per cent of tax on the rich, that would pay for this pay rise.”

Pat said that morale among staff has been positive during the strike action.
 
“We are being proactive and are actively fighting for what is owed to us but what you see on the picket line is only a small amount of our members as we are making sure that we are covering the care that is necessary.”
 
Earlier this week, Mary Gatt, a nurse in the Royal’s Cardiovascular Outpatients Department, said she didn’t think that when she was on strike in 2019 she would be back on the picket line exactly three years later.
 
“Clearly the message has not been heard yet and the lack of Stormont has a huge impact upon our work,” she said.
 
“As nurses we care for everybody regardless of age, race or anything. We are here to look after everybody, and it is very important that we have a government to get our health service back up and running the way it should be.”

Recounting the stresses being placed on healthcare staff, Mary said that she would be concerned if she or her family were to be admitted to hospital at the moment.
 
“It is unfortunate that nurses are stretched to the brink. They are trying to do ten jobs at once and it is extremely difficult. We are trying to work with the resources that we currently have but it is extremely difficult and very concerning.
 
“The Emergency Department is completely overwhelmed on a daily basis, and it has been like that not for weeks or months but the last few years. Ward situations are very similar where we have additional patients being held at ward level. There aren’t enough beds, and it really is a very sad situation we find ourselves in in the 21st century.”
 
Joining the nurses on the picket line, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said the British Government’s refusal to budge on health pay is putting lives at risk.   
 
“The Tories need to stop playing with patients’ lives,” he said.

“The future of the health service is at stake, but they are still refusing to budge on health workers’ pay.  
 
“Staffing shortages in our health service will only get worse if staff aren’t paid properly. While the Tories and their wealthy allies can pay for private healthcare, ordinary people will suffer the deadly consequences of this crisis.” 
 
Mr Carroll said the crisis in the health service is “one of the Tories’ making”.  
 
“The Tories have driven health workers to the brink through years of disinvestment in the NHS,” he continued. “Nurses and their colleagues should keep up the fight until the government is forced to concede.”