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Unprecedented UK Nursing Union and Ambulance crews strike

Tuesday, 07 February 2023 8:50 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 07 February 2023 8:59 AM ]

NHS nurse on Strike (File)

Tens of thousands of nurses from the Royal College of Nursing Union and ambulance crews have gone on an unprecedented strike, calling on the NHS for increased pay as well as better work conditions.

They had warned during the previous strike that the next one would be their biggest yet, and they have kept their promise. Tens of thousands of nurses from the Royal College of Nursing union and ambulance crews are on strike, this time, together.

Tens of thousands of nurses from the Royal College of Nursing Union and ambulance crews on strike, this time together.

UK NHS on brink as govt. refuses to settle pay dispute with health workers

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The chanting on the picket lines is not just about inflation busting pay rises but about the depressing state of the National Health Service as well.

An ICU nurse, who has worked for the NHS for 10 years, explains why she thinks the system is in crisis:

Total underfunding, a lack of foresight, I think, politically and nurses really just being taken for granted for too long

Striking ICU Nurse, 10 years with NHS

NHS healthcare staff in UK quit at record 400 a week

NHS healthcare staff in UK quit at record 400 a week

A new research reveals that a record number of more than 400 healthcare staff in the UK have left the NHS to restore their work-life balance over the past year.

And that has meant tens of thousands of trained nurses either leaving the profession or working for the private sector in recent years.

The strikers are calling for the National Health Service to be kept alive, a system which is now on life support, and many in the medical profession believe that the deeper the crisis gets, the stronger the likelihood that privatization will be foisted upon them.

From hero to zero, and claps don’t pay the bills: some of the chants by nurses across the country on strike again in a dispute with the government over pay and patient safety.

UK strikes: Nurses walk out again in dispute over pay and shortages

In the UK, the wave of industrial action across the country that is only gaining momentum in the wake of the government’s controversial new anti-union legislation.

That's because while the NHS is at breaking point, private healthcare is flourishing, creating worries about a two tier system, one for the rich, who can pay their way, and another one, a subpar NHS, for everyone else.

I hope that it isn't the case that we're moving towards a privatized system. I think it would be disastrous for all of us if that if that was the case.

I think hopefully with these strikes, the public support that we've gained, the government will listen and see that that is an option. People don't want to lose the NHS.

NHS Striker

Though public support for the strikers is evidently very strong, however, it remains to be seen which side the British government will take.