“It was like being transported to a war zone in a third world country. There were people everywhere, in chairs, in wheelchairs, on the floor – a lot of very sick children and a lot of people coughing.”
A scene at Macclesfield District General Hospital witnessed by retired nurse Alison Morton helps explain why her former colleagues are about to go on strike on Thursday and why they are so concerned about the future of the NHS.
Ms Morton, who has worked in the healthcare industry for 50 years, is “shocked to the core” by what she saw in the hospital and by the fact that her critically ill 82-year-old husband needed more than 15 hours in the emergency room. soothed. admissible.
She saw patients queuing in the corridors of the NHS Trust hospital in East Cheshire after her husband Jim arrived last Monday evening.
“Jim was taken to the emergency room and put on a trolley,” she said. I. “People were everywhere again – in chairs, on carts, standing. Every room and corridor was packed with people.”
Ms Morton said the experience made her “wholeheartedly” support the striking nurses fighting for better wages and working conditions.
About 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will leave hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday amid real wage cuts they say threaten patient safety. The RCN is campaigning for a 5 percent pay rise against inflation as measured by the consumer price index, which is currently over 14 percent. Health Secretary Steve Barclay called the issue “priceless.”
In July, the government said it had accepted recommendations from an independent pay review body that raised the wages of more than a million NHS workers, including nurses, paramedics and midwives, by at least £1,400, with the underpaid allowed up to 9.3 per cent. . . The average increase is about 4.5 percent. But nurses say that’s not enough after years of real pay cuts that have exacerbated staffing problems.
Nursing jobs in England alone have reached a record high of 47,496, with a record number of jobs leaving the profession due to stress and burnout, according to the latest figures from NHS Digital.
According to the RCN, the level of staff is so low that it jeopardizes patient care. “Only by paying the medical staff a fair wage can we attract and retain people for our profession,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Morton, who worked as an operating room nurse for 12 years and then 14 years as a health visitor and ended her NHS career as a child welfare officer, said: “I’m not surprised nurses are leaving the profession in droves. it’s just that so many stay and work so hard. In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like a Monday night… One of the nurses mentioned that she worked in a war zone.
“I worked at night in the operating room with numerous victims of a traffic accident or a fight, but nothing like this happened. I saw that everything was done with the highest quality, with the utmost care and attention. The medical staff has always been friendly and empathetic, but at the same time completely professional and caring for every patient, but this comes at a price.
Mr. Morton suffered from internal bleeding – something that had happened before and required two hospitalizations and a blood transfusion – for three days before he suddenly got worse. The couple’s GP practice does not offer after hours services, so they drove to the emergency room after being told it would take up to 40 minutes to get to NHS 111.
On Tuesday afternoon, after 3.5 hours in intensive care, he finally went to bed – the bustle in the corridors did not subside all morning.
The Eastern Cheshire NHS Trust said it could not comment on individual cases and urged people to go to the emergency room only “in case of serious accidents and emergencies”.
A spokesperson said: “The National Health Service is currently in high demand and our Emergency Room (A&E) at Macclesfield Hospital is no exception. Unfortunately, this requirement has resulted in some patients requiring hospitalization having to wait in the ward for a long time, and measures have been taken to ensure patient safety, care and dignity while waiting.
“We continue to work closely with our partners in health and social care to ensure that patients are safely discharged from the hospital and beds are available to reduce waiting times in the emergency department. We would like to apologize to those affected.”
A nurse in the North West of England tells a story I: “I’m very, very angry about what’s going on. We have too few staff and we are completely overwhelmed. Some people wait for hours until more urgent things come up and they get priority. So people get very tired and annoyed – and it’s nobody’s fault but the government – we haven’t had enough money for years.”
Another senior nurse from the same region said: “We are not just on strike to get more money, although of course this is important – we have not had a decent raise in years and prices are rising.
“We are also on strike for patient care – what is happening here is happening across the country, and patients are simply not getting proper care. It’s not how I want to care, it’s not how I was taught to care – it just fills in the blanks, it doesn’t help people get well.
Downing Street suggested this week that striking NHS workers could be targeted as part of Rishi Sunak’s promised new “tough” measures to contain the wave of strikes. Members of the RCN in Scotland have suspended their strike as the Scottish government has offered members an improved salary.
Ms Morton said: “This is a national scandal and a very real, life-threatening crisis. We used to have healthcare that the whole world was jealous of, but now it’s a joke and travelers talk about much better healthcare abroad, especially in Europe and Australia. This is a far cry from the NHS, which I was proud to be a part of in the early 1970s.
“If the nurses don’t go on strike, if they don’t alert the nation about this disease, they will just burn out and leave. Then who will take care of us?”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.