Nurses across the country have suspended future strikes as they attempt to come to an agreement with the government.
This is following a series of consecutive strikes that occurred this past month and was planned to continue into March.
They’re led by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) who claim that the lack of support from the government leaves wards in the hospital unsafe and understaffed.
Rory Fletcher, a nurse striking outside Royal Bournemouth Hospital said: “We’ve got nurses that are overworked, and we cannot safely and effectively look after relatives in the wards. We need investment in nursing.”
Like many other nurses, he called for support from the public asking them to be “sensible” in regard to calling on ambulances and going to A&E.
There are nearly 50,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS, and this figure is expected to rise statistics suggest.
“You need to pay nurses properly to keep them leaving the profession. In the future it will be even worse than it is at the moment,” Mr Fletcher said.
The government are set to have a series of talks with the nation’s health unions to discuss pay, where previous talks have resulted in no action from Westminster.
Nurse Sue Miller said to Buzz News: “We save lives and people don’t seem to understand that. The country is more ill than it used to be.”
The NHS strike action is one of the biggest for healthcare in the UK, with tens and thousands of nurses, ambulance drivers and more having been on strike since December 2022.
The RCN called off a 48-hour walkout that had been planned for 1st to 3rd of and would have included A&E and intensive care nurses for the first time.
The strike action has been the biggest in NHS history with tens of thousands of members taking action to increase wages, which in January of this year, was negotiated initially for a 3% rise.
For more information on the strikes and talks with the Prime Minister, visit the RCN website www.rcn.org.uk
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