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Watch: see chants and support for nurses on picket lines

Nurses are receiving plenty of help from TV doctors, brass sections and more as the voice for fairer pay grows ever louder across England

Nurses are receiving plenty of help from TV doctors, brass sections and more as the voice for fairer pay grows ever louder across England

Nurse in Florence Nightingale uniform joins the picket line at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. Picture: Alamy

Chants, car horns and musical instruments could all be heard on picket lines across England on the biggest day of strike action in NHS history.

A Florence Nightingale lookalike joined the picket line outside University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH), wearing a traditional uniform and apron, and equipped with a megaphone.

TV doctors show up to support nurses

TV presenter Dr Chris van Tulleken, who hosts programmes with identical twin brother Dr Xand, shared a video of a huge picket line outside UCLH where RCN members chanted ‘Nurses aren’t just for COVID, they’re for life.’

In Lancaster nurses were ‘brassed off’ as trombone and horn players, and drummers, joined members outside the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust picket line as they played their own take on ‘As the saints go marching in’, replacing the word ‘saints’ with ‘nurses.’

Meanwhile, braving the freezing temperatures early on Monday morning, members of the RCN outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London could be seen chanting in the shadow of Big Ben, with the Houses of Parliament looming behind.

Here’s a round-up of some of our favourite videos:

Nurses tell prime minister how it is

Finally the RCN shared a moving video that showed nurses sharing what they would say to Rishi Sunak if they got one minute with him:

One lead nurse, Colin, said Mr Sunak needed to spend time with nurses ‘working with dying children, and working with the elderly’ who will die on their own without action. He spoke of the anguish that nurses are going through trying to do the best they can.

Another nurse, Rose, challenged him to do one long shift with her to truly understand how ‘very grim’ it is at work.


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