A south east London campaign group are leafleting outside Lewisham Hospital as nursing staff from more than 55 NHS trusts go on strike today.
Nursing staff from 55 NHS trusts in England are on strike today (January 19) and yesterday (January 18) over pay and working conditions which they say are impacting the level of care they can provide to their patients.
More strikes are to be expected according to the Royal College of Nursing (RNC), who has also confirmed that a further two strike days would take place next month.
Patients are being advised by NHS England to “use services wisely” during strike days and use 111 online services for all non-emergency cases and to call 999 in a life-threatening emergency.
Nursing staff at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust are not part of yesterday and today’s industrial action, but campaign group Reclaim the NHS for Greenwich and Lewisham have been leafletting at the hospital site to support the strikes.
For Reclaim the NHS Greenwich and Lewisham campaigner, Helen Mercer, supporting these strikes is a way of showing solidarity to the NHS staff who she claims aren’t getting the support they need to work and thrive.
Helen told the News Shopper how nursing staff are having to resort to foodbanks, and working under immense pressure with a lack of staff is having a strain on the NHS service.
The 66-year-old campaigner said: “We believe that all health workers should be paid decently, there shouldn’t have to be food banks attached to hospitals and that they need decent working conditions.
“What’s happening with the lack of funding is that NHS workers are under enormous stress, there aren’t enough staff and they’re trying to do their best.
“We need to support and fight for the NHS we used to have.”
Leafleteers included a mix of campaigners, NHS service users and medical professionals. For service user, George Howard, supporting the strikes is important for him as he has a close family member working in the NHS, and wants to preserve it for others who need it.
The 75-year-old said: “I want to defend the NHS, I want to defend the terms and conditions of the ambulance drivers, nurses and all the people in the NHS.
“Inflation is going up at a tremendous rate and if you look at it in real terms most NHS workers are getting a pay cut, they need this extra money to stay where they are.
“They work very hard, there’s a crisis that they can’t recruit people, people can’t afford to work for the NHS.
“Nurses can earn far more in the private sector so of course there’s a leakage of nurses.
“During Covid we all were clapping these workers, they were the heroes and now the government is making them out to be greedy villains and it’s not right.”
For one medical student who is about to begin his career as a student doctor, the strikes are a stark reminder of how much the service is struggling to inspire new recruits to join the profession.
The medical student, who is soon to finish his exams, said that these strikes are a result of poor working conditions and low pay forcing nurses out of the NHS and into the private sector.
He explained: “It’s really demoralising going into a setting where you know staff aren’t getting the pay and working conditions that they need to do the job.
“Right now nobody’s profiting, the nurses, the doctors and not the patients.
“So, all you have is these nurses leaving the NHS and working in the private sector because they aren’t being provided for.
“It just makes no sense to not put into this work force because it doesn’t incentivise people to stay here, let alone join up and for me it’s sad to think this is the state of our national healthcare service.”
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