Nurses formed picket lines in Leeds on Monday to call for better pay and staffing condition as strike action continues.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) were picketing outside the Jubilee Wing of Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) on May 1 as disputes continue between the government and unions. Walkouts are set to last until midnight after a High Court judge ruled it was unlawful for the action to continue into Tuesday.
The strikes come ahead of a meeting on Tuesday where ministers, NHS bosses and union heads will discuss the government's 5% pay offer - RCN members rejected the offer in announcing their newest strike. Nurses on the picket line in Leeds today explained why it was so important for them to fight for their demands.
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Newly qualified nurse Imogen told LeedsLive: "We’re striking for fair pay because what we currently have doesn’t reflect the work we put into our jobs and the responsibility we have. I think nursing is traditionally seen as just under doctors but we have a lot of responsibility and lives in our hands every day.
"People are getting so burned out and having to do so much overtime just to fund their lives. Lots of people are quitting - there's no staff retention.
"When I was on my final placement as a student nurse I was basically being used as a member of staff. There's not enough of us on the wards and that's detrimental for the health of patients because we can't do things fast enough.
"It's really hard to watch and there's nothing you can do about it."
This third strike action was the first time RCN nurses walked out across areas of the NHS, with the NHS warning disruption was expected. Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary, said there were some exemptions in place so nurses on strike could be called in to get a minimum level of cover.
This strike action included nurses from areas previously exempt from action - such as some cancer care, intensive care and emergency departments. RCN said it was the biggest nursing strike so far - there was also a picket line at St James Hospital in Leeds.
The LGI picket line was lively on Monday, with passing cars and ambulances showing their support by tooting horns. Striking nurses also joined in chanting enthusiastically.
A community mental health nurse who was on the picket line, who didn't want to be named, said: "We can’t retain staff so our case loads are very high. It’s very stressful and we’re struggling - we don’t feel like we have the proper time to spend with patients and worry about the risks that could pose.
"Mental health is chronically underfunded but all the services are struggling to retain staff - sometimes our team's staff get taken to plug gaps.
"Our pay has been frozen for years but you can really feel it now with the cost of living. Before you could do things like go on holiday and now you might not even have enough to last the month.
"We need to be able to have proper downtime - I spend my time off doing extra work to keep up with all my admin. We all end up doing a lot of unpaid work like that. We've been telling the government about these problems for years though and they haven't listened. Without strike action we probably wouldn't have even got that 5% offer - striking is the only way to shift the government."
Leeds nurse Rhian explained how some nurses are using food banks due to struggling with the current pay, and that nurses are asking for pay to be increased in line with inflation. Data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council register analysed by the RCN in February showed nearly 43,000 people (aged 21-50) left the register between 2018 and 2022 - an increase on the year before.
Campaigners from group Keep our NHS Public were also present at the picket line on Monday. Organiser Gilda explained that they have been campaigning against "underfunding and privatisation" of the NHS for around 15 years.
"Those things have meant services have increasingly been struggling," she said. "We need proper staffing, we need more beds, more services in the community - health is important and society should be based on it.
"If the NHS continues to be eroded we'll see more privatisation and a two-tier system emerging. We're here to defend the NHS and support the nurses."
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