Nurses have told of being unable to afford food as ex-PM Gordon Brown called for an end to “food bank Britain”.
Mr Brown said it is now a “humanitarian issue” because medics are having to queue up for food parcels after finishing their shifts.
At least six NHS trusts have set up food banks or launched food voucher schemes for workers as part of efforts to help staff cope with the rising cost of living.
Before the current crises an estimated one in eight NHS workers were affected by in-work poverty.
Mr Brown made the intervention giving a speech at the Royal College of Nursing’s annual congress in Glasgow yesterday.
“Thousands of nurses report that, because of the cost-of-living crisis, they are skipping meals so they can feed their children,” he said.
“I want an end to food-bank Britain by an end to poverty and low-pay Britain.
“This is not a party political issue but a humanitarian issue. A matter of common decency.
“The best way we can reward the nurses of Britain for what they did for us during the pandemic is ensuring decent wages and working conditions. Our nurses cared for us - it’s time for us to care for them.”
Trusts are setting up food banks with many keen to give them a different name to reduce stigma.
Milton Keynes University Hospital has set up a “food exchange” for struggling staff.
The Mirror understands similar food support services have been set up to help hospital staff in Manchester and London.
One A&E nurse and a mother-of-two from north west England said: “I was so distressed I felt sick. I just didn’t have the money to pay for rent or food.
“My little one wasn’t well and she needed Calpol. I knew I had to do something.
“I have never needed charity, I thought that my job as a nurse would mean I would have a good wage, enough to look after my family properly.
“I had to use a foodbank because there was literally nothing in my cupboards. I felt like a beggar.
“Fortunately they were good to us and understanding but I felt so ashamed.”
Trusts including Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, Norfolk Community Health and Care, West Hertfordshire, Dartford and Gravesham have also recently set up staff food banks and food voucher services.
Another nurse from the region who works in an intensive care unit told how she was so desperate she turned to her local priest.
She said: “I finished my shift and picked up the kids and we went shopping, nothing but the bare essentials, but my card was declined at the till.
“Then my credit card was declined. Nothing would work. I was so embarrassed I took the kids back to the car and rang the bank.
“There wasn’t enough in my account, I couldn’t buy food or pay my mortgage. I didn’t know what to do.
“I went to the church and prayed. I met the priest and we talked, I was crying. He went away and came back with shopping bags full of food for us.
“I was so grateful, we just cried. I never thought I would be in a situation like this. I thought being a nurse would help us.”
Mr Brown called for investment to tackle the shortage of nursing staff across the UK.
He added: “Two years ago the NHS was deservedly awarded the George Cross for its work during the pandemic, but the reward for individual nurses has been pay settlements well below inflation, leaving nurses much worse off,” he said.
“Now, as part of the Platinum Jubilee, members of the armed forces and emergency services are rightly receiving Jubilee medals.
“I say all nurses too should be lining up to receive Jubilee medals, but instead - and it’s almost unbelievable that this is the case in the fifth richest country in the world - today, too many nurses are lining up at food banks.
“I hate the idea of nurses doing long shifts and then having to leave the beds of their patients to queue up for food parcels.
“Surely, as a country, we didn’t come all this way to end up in the year 2022 with food banks, bedding banks, baby banks, and clothes banks replacing the welfare state as our last line of defence against poverty and low pay?”
