A&E patient left on the brink of tears begs Rishi Sunak to ‘pay staff fairly’ after brutal 8-hour wait on first day of unprecedented NHS strike – as cancer nurses join in for first time
- Royal College of Nursing has organised walk-outs at more than 100 NHS trusts
- Read more: Nurses accused of risking patients’ lives during 28-hour walkout
An A&E patient forced to wait over eight hours to be treated on the first day of the crippling nursing strike has begged Rishi Sunak to ‘please, please, please, please, pay your staff fairly’.
The woman, who goes by the name ‘Mystic Chez’ on social media, claimed she had arrived at hospital at 10:30pm last night, but had yet to even be seen by medics by 7am this morning.
Mystic Chez, who is also awaiting an organ transplant, described the NHS as being ‘broken’ in her eye-opening Twitter rant.
It comes as cancer nurses went on strike today for the first time in a huge escalation of the never-ending pay row.
A&Es and intensive care wards will also be affected by the 28-hour walk-out, which has seen health chiefs beg the public to use the NHS ‘wisely’.
More than 100 NHS trusts will effectively be brought to a standstill because of the unprecedented action orchestrated by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Delays and disruptions are expected across the entire health service.
Taking to Twitter this morning, Mystic Chez posted a video message of her saying: ‘Morning Rishi, I’ve been sat in A&E since 10:30 last night and it’s currently 7am and I’ve still not been triaged.
Twitter user @NonoAnnPoodle, who is also awaiting an organ transplant, claimed she had arrived at 10:30pm last night, but had yet to even be seen by medics
Taking to Twitter this morning in a video she said: ‘Morning Rishi, I’ve been sat in A&E since 10:30 last night and it’s currently 7am and I’ve still not been triaged. ‘Please please please please pay your staff fairly, please’
Under NHS guidelines, patients should be assessed and triaged within 15 minutes of arriving into A&E. Tweeting at 7am this morning, @NonoAnnPoodle also shared a photograph of a whiteboard in A&E confirming 45 patients were waiting in the department
‘Please please please please pay your staff fairly, please.’
Under NHS guidelines, all patients should be assessed and triaged within 15 minutes of arriving into A&E.
Tweeting at 7am this morning, she also shared a photograph of a whiteboard in A&E confirming 45 patients were waiting in the department.
The wait time to see a clinician after arrival had also hit 10 hours.
The location of the hospital is unknown.
Read more: Cancer nurses go on strike for first time: Thousands of health workers from half of NHS trusts in England stage 28-hour strike over pay today in blow to patients in cancer units, ICU wards and A&E – after union boss warned action could last YEARS
The union initially said it would not agree to derogations – broad areas of care where staffing is guaranteed despite industrial action.
But last-minute talks yesterday between the RCN and NHS England agreed ‘to protect life and limb services’ with the union allowing nurses to provide a minimal level of staffing in intensive care and trauma.
Previous RCN walk-outs designed to bring the NHS to a standstill saw cancer wards protected.
Strikes began at 8pm yesterday and will end just before midnight, following a High Court ruling that a planned second day would be ‘unlawful’.
NHS England however told patients to expect major ‘disruptions and delays to services’.
Ahead of today’s strike, England’s chief nurse Dame Ruth May said: ‘These mitigations do not represent a return to standard staffing.
‘The industrial action will still have a very significant impact on services during the strike period and patients can expect to see longer waits for care.
‘The public should use the NHS wisely, with those needing non-urgent care using pharmacies and 111 online as their first port of call.’
It comes after RCN general secretary Pat Cullen yesterday suggested strikes could years if the demands of health union bosses are not met.
She said: ‘If we have the same approach to pay negotiations next year, do we just grind the cycle again?
‘Well, there’s a strong possibility, because it appears that for our nursing staff that’s the only way that they can get their voice heard.’
Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, she also added: ‘We can now see the NHS can’t cope without nursing staff, that is abundantly clear.’
She called on general managers in the NHS to ‘signal immediately to government the importance of nursing and how critical it is to get this dispute resolved.’
Today’s action comes ahead of a crucial meeting between unions, ministers and NHS bosses tomorrow.
It will see all parties discuss whether to accept the Government’s offer of a 5 per cent rise and one-off bonus.
The RCN are among the unions to have voted to reject the deal.
However, others, including GMB, want to accept the offer.
NHS workers and supporters at a picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London this morning, during industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing and Unite unions
NHS workers and supporters at a picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London this morning, during industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing and Unite unions
Local strikes involving Unite members who are ambulance workers in Yorkshire are also taking place today, with the south of England and West Midlands following tomorrow.
Unite said with inflation still in double figures, the offer is a ‘substantial real-terms pay cut’ for NHS workers.
Latest Office for National Statistics figures in March saw inflation sit at 10.1 per cent despite predictions it would fall below 10 per cent.
Voting is weighted as the unions vary hugely in size – the biggest two, Unison and the RCN, both have close to 300,000 members on Agenda for Change, while the smallest ones have just a few thousand.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay however told broadcasters on Sunday: ‘I think this strike is premature and is disrespectful to those trade unions that will be meeting on Tuesday.’
Striking NHS staff will stage a protest march in London today.
Unite said the demonstration will pass Parliament and go to Trafalgar Square.
Where are the nurses striking today?
The RCN has said walk-out will be held at the following NHS workplaces in England:
East Midlands
Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB
NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Eastern
Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB
NHS Mid and South Essex ICB
NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB
NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Norfolk Community Health and Care
NHS Trust Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
London
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
NHS North Central London ICB
NHS South West London ICB
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
North West
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust
Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Northern
Country Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Gateshead NHS Foundation Trust
North of England Commissioning Support (NECS)
North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
South East
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Kent and Medway ICB
NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
South East Coast Ambulance Service
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
Solent NHS Trust
South Central Ambulance Services NHS Foundation Trust
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
South West
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Bath, North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB
NHS Devon ICB (One Devon)
NHS Dorset ICB (One Dorset)
NHS Gloucestershire ICB (One Gloucestershire)
North Bristol NHS Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
West Midlands
Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
Midlands and Lancashire CSU
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB (BSol ICB)
NHS Black Country ICB
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust
The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Yorkshire and the Humber
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust
Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
NHS North West Yorkshire ICB
Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
National employers
Health Education England
NHS Blood and Transplant
NHS England NHS Resolution
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