9 October 2022
Nurses rally for pay outside Parliament, 6 September 2017. Photo John Gomez/shutterstock.com.
When nurses start leaving the NHS for lower skilled but higher paid jobs and those that remain claim a pay rise of inflation plus 5 per cent, then those of us that need the NHS have to listen to them. When they feel that they have to ballot for strike action, it is time for those of us outside the NHS to stop clapping and hear the call to arms.
The ballot organised by the Royal College of Nursing began on 6 October, and ends on 2 November. It is our disgrace that they have to consider this. We must let them know that if there has to be action it will be the rest of us that takes it. Everyone in a workplace can act to stop or disrupt the job. Those not in work can disrupt everything else.
The government must know that they dare not continue to destroy our NHS.