Children at the hospital are facing “appalling and excruciating” delays in treatment, including pain relief, due to a daily shortage of staff, a striking nurse has warned.
So said pediatric nurse Jane Jones, who struck in central London on Monday. I that desperate parents are taking their anger out on local staff as conditions in hospitals deteriorate.
Today’s strike is the fifth time that thousands of members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have been fired from their jobs in England over a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions. Ambulance crews in parts of England also fled.
The daily shortage of staff meant children had to wait half an hour or 40 minutes to get medicine, help to use the toilet or get medical advice, Ms Jones, 37, said.
She warned that the wait times were getting worse, but added, “There’s nothing I can do.”
“It’s terrible, it’s just shocking,” she said. “Because you think it’s someone who’s very vulnerable right now – whether it’s an adult or a child – they’re in a vulnerable position and you think, ‘I should be the person to stand up for them, and that’s good for her.’ . . . ”
As staff shortages and care delays worsen, parents are also becoming more frustrated, Ms Jones added, saying she constantly apologizes.
Claire Antoniazzi, an emergency room nurse in central London who also joined the picket line today, said she regularly left work “feeling like a failure” because she couldn’t provide the care she needed.
“You have to shout loudly if you have a patient who is falling and you have a patient who is hurting, you should run to the patient who is falling, but you don’t want to hurt that person,” she said. I.
According to Ms Antoniazzi, 35, Covid-19 has heightened public health concerns, with many people rushing unnecessarily to emergency rooms as a result.
At the same time, retaining experienced employees, including those responsible for managing and delegating tasks, has been a major challenge.
She added: “If all the nurses transfer from range 6, you might have a shift where you have a lot of range 5 nurses, but no one can triage, so you end up having to push people who are not ready to swap.” roles. .”
Kati Paalosalo-Harris, 51, is a clinical nurse who works with patients with a very rare genetic disorder called epidermolysis bullosa, which causes the skin to become brittle and blister easily.
Ms Paalosalo-Harris said that patients require many services in different parts of the healthcare system and do not receive consistent care.
“When we visit our patients in the ward, we see how incredibly tight the shift is, how there is no continuity of treatment because the system relies on the goodwill of people to come and work an extra shift when they can,” she said. I.
The nurse, who has worked in the NHS for 28 years and has a master’s degree, said the nurses were highly trained but were not paid or treated as if they were.
“I’m doing well, but I don’t want to think about what it’s like for my junior colleagues to be in business,” she said. “It must be horrendous for her to see how little her work is appreciated – in terms of fair pay.”
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.