NURSES  from the Royal College of Nursing are back on the picket lines this morning demanding fair pay, having previously walked out prior to the pandemic in 2019.

Speaking at the RVH picket line, 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.”

Last week, the head of the Royal College of Nursing in the North, Rita Devlin told belfastmedia.com that her members feel undervalued as they are the worst paid nurses in the UK.

Joining the nursing staff on the picket line at the Royal, Belfast Health and Social Care Chief Executive Cathy Jack told the Andersonstown News that politicians need to pay nurses fairly.
 
“The biggest asset that the Health and Social Care system has are its fabulous staff and these staff out here today are fabulous and need our support,” she said.
 
“Our politicians need to recognise the work and commitment from the staff right across the Health and Social Care system.”
 
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll has said today’s nursing strike is an indictment of Tory health policy.  
 
He said “overworked and underpaid” nurses - members of the RCN - had been forced to the picket lines by poverty wages and underinvestment in the health service.  
“Nurses are demanding a proper pay rise after years of stagnant wages,” he stated.  
 
“The Tory health pay offer is an insult. They have purposefully disinvested in the health service and in health workers, driving staff and patients towards the private sector.   
“Health and social care workers have been forced to strike to defend the NHS. A real pay rise is the only way to plug huge staffing gaps, which have been compounded by poverty wages." 

Mr Carroll criticised Stormont’s main parties for towing the Tory line on health.   
 
“Stormont’s main parties were also content to offer health workers a real terms pay cut,” he continued.  
 
Nursing staff will return to the picket lines on Tuesday with the possibility of more strikes in the new year if the government continue to stay away from pay negotiations.