Running Time: 8mins 41secs
On their third day strike action, a huge march of furious nurses descended on Downing St from UCLH hospital, demanding a substantial payrise to save the NHS.
There are now 47,000 nurse vacancies, and 132,000 staff vacancies in total in the NHS. Over 100 A&E departments have been shut already. All of which is why there are now a shocking 500 deaths a week because of delays in accessing emergency care.
Without a substantial pay rise to stop nurses leaving for better terms and conditions in other countries and in the private sector (or even in their local supermarket) – the NHS will be gone. And the Tories couldn’t care less.
They aren’t interested in settling this dispute – they want to privatise the whole thing and get rid of our greatest institution. And they don’t care how many people die and how much trauma they cause in the process.
But this is becoming the defining struggle of the current wave of resistance – and with public support growing, and more and more sectors taking strike action and ready to unite their forces, the government could well end up bitterly regretting the day they decided to take on the nurses.
This is a battle to save the NHS – and if they stay as solid and determined as they were today, the nurses will win.
