Nurses across England have entered their second day of strikes as one nurse claims that conditions are worse now than they were during the pandemic.
Hillary, a staff nurse at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside who has worked in the NHS for the last 40 years, told GB news that the sector has never “seen [such] bad understaffing and underfunding”.
She said: “Well, I've been nursing for 40 years and I have never seen it so bad. The understaffing, the underfunding.
“You've got newly qualified staff nurses who are burnt out. You go round the wards. COVID was bad enough. But it's worse.”
GB News Sophie Reaper spoke to a nurse who said the NHS is worse than it was during Covid
GB News
Health leaders are now arranging contingency plans for what could be the biggest walkout in NHS history next month.
On Wednesday, GMB union announced that 10,000 ambulance workers would join nurses in a combined day of action on February 6.
The nurse continued: “Boris, and all their clapping, it's done nothing. These poor nurses, they've got their futures ahead of them. If he carries on the way it is, we haven't got an NHS, we haven't got nurses.
“You know, if you don't invest in us, then I don't know what we're going to do because it has never, ever been this bad. The government needs to get their act together.
“They need to stop ignoring what's going on. I mean, how many people have to die? How many nurses have to leave before they actually do something.
“But to tell you now, Boris when you needed an ITU bed, when you were had Covid. What if that ITU bed wasn’t there?”
NHS: Nurses across England are carrying out a second day of strikes
Stefan Rousseau
NHS experts have expressed “huge concern” over fresh strikes as the pay dispute between staff and the Government shows no signs of reaching a resolution.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has demanded a rise of five per cent above inflation but has said they will compromise if health secretary Steve Barclay can negotiate a deal.
Nurses are staging stoppages for 13 hours on Thursday, starting at 7.30am until 8.30pm.
