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Nurses’ strike live: walkouts over pay enter sixth day

Keep pace with today’s events as nurses stage latest protest in their bid to ramp up pressure on government ministers to agree to pay talks
- @alibaabra
- @_ShrutiST
- @journoandrea
Posted 07 February 2023 - 05:00
Striking nurses outside Royal Preston Hospital today 

Keep pace with today’s events as nurses stage latest protest in their bid to ramp up pressure on government ministers to agree to pay talks

Striking nurses outside Royal Preston Hospital today
Striking nurses outside Royal Preston Hospital today Picture: John Houlihan

Nurses are pressing ahead with another day of strikes today after the biggest walkout in NHS history yesterday.

Watch now

Videos from striking nurses

Staff at 73 trusts in England braved the cold to picket their workplaces in their fight for fairer pay and working conditions – and today is looking likely to be no warmer.

See all our coverage of the RCN strikes here

If you’d like to share your story with Nursing Standard, you can contact the news team at news@rcni.com or on Twitter @NurseStandard

5.40pm

Six days in, strikes point to nurses’ continued resolve – but that determination is matched by ministers’ refusal to negotiate. For now

Nurses have braved the cold but showed their best resolve as they took their fight for higher pay and better working conditions back to picket lines this week. As the sixth day of walkouts in England draws to a close, their fight is far from over.

Ministers persist with their refusal to negotiate on this year’s pay offer. In contrast, industrial action has been averted in other parts of the UK, after revised pay offers were made.

Your quick guide on pay offers across the UK

5.10pm

Pets on picket lines

It is looking ‘ruff’ out on the picket lines as four-legged friends offering nurses plenty of ‘supawt’.

Kitted out in RCN-branded jackets and hats, one furry ally in London even wore a placard proclaiming ‘More pay more treats!’

Meanwhile in Yorkshire, RCN England director Patricia Marquis spotted Downing Street’s longest resident Larry the Cat on the picket line.

Meeting nurses out on strike today, she said members were still ‘astute and resolute’ and urged prime minister to ‘chat to Pat’.

Maybe Larry can put in a good word at Number 10?

4.10pm

Singing, signs and skeletons help to get the message across

As ever the chants on the picket lines are getting creative and inspiring dancing as nurses join together to keep their spirits high.

Nurses outside Guy’s Hospital in London were chanting ‘Hey, hey Rishi Sunak, I want to know… when we’ll get fair pay’.

At University College London Hospital, nurses danced to Beyonce’s ‘Break my Soul’.

In Worthing nurses demanded respect in the immortal words of Aretha Franklin. Singing her famous ‘Respect’, nurses cheered and whooped for better pay.

And proving they can do more than save lives, nurses have created handmade signs to get their message across.

Or, they used dressed-up skeletons to illustrate just how ‘bone tired’ nurses really are.

2.30pm

Saddened nurse defiant after being spat at by passerby

A nurse who was spat at by a member of the public on the picket line says that she will not ‘give up or shut up.’

Paediatric nurses practitioner Hanah was outside Southampton General Hospital when a passerby spat at her feet and told her to ‘shut up.’

Holding a minions sign which said ‘Gru-elling conditions, despicable pay,’ Hannah shared photos of herself smiling on the picket line and thanked people for all their support on social media.

But it wasn’t all hostility – in North Devon the public brought nurses at a community hospital hot drinks and snacks to get through today’s strikes.

And at Torbay Hospital a member of the public brought his guitar and amp along to the picket line to serenade nurses with a rendition of Friends theme tune ‘I'll be there for you,’ by the Rembrandts.

12.28pm

Winter sunshine encourages strikers in the north west

It might be cold but the sun is shining this morning in the north west, and it looks like it’s keeping nurses going.

Picket line at Royal Preston Hospital
Picket line at Royal Preston Hospital Picture: John Houlihan

A cancer patient joined picketing nurses, holding a sign saying: ‘This cancer patient still supports the nurses’.

Picket line at Royal Preston Hospital
Royal Preston Hospital Picture: John Houlihan

Others were chanting for safe staffing and fair pay.

11.25am

Pooches, pick-me-ups and pretty babies on the picket lines

Pups, babies and the public have rallied around nurses this morning.

Nursing staff have also been chanting loudly as they continue to make their message clear. ‘No nurses, no NHS,’ say voices from the St Mary’s Hospital picket line in London.

Meanwhile, members of the public have been showing their support by delivering hot drinks and sweet treats to nurses striking in sub-zero temperatures.

9.18am

We’re going to keep on keeping on this fight for fairer pay… and even our dogs are standing with us

‘We’re going to keep making our voices heard until the government listens’ – that is the message from nurses taking to picket lines again today.


Despite a frosty start to the morning, nursing staff are once again taking a stand, with some furry friends also standing in solidarity.

8.46am

Pat Cullen accuses Sunak of punishing England's nurses

The government has been accused of being ‘on strike’ during the biggest day of walkouts in NHS history.

Urgent questions about the strikes were put forward in parliament yesterday, but health and social care secretary Steve Barclay was not there to answer them.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: ‘No health secretary and no business secretary [Grant Shapps] were there to answer urgent questions in parliament today – and no response from the prime minister after I wrote to him this weekend. People may wonder if the government is also on strike.

‘The Westminster government is punishing England’s nurses and looking increasingly isolated as the Welsh and Scottish Governments come to the table.’

Health minister Will Quince, who responded on Mr Barclay’s behalf, said Mr Barclay was attending a Cobra meeting so could not be in the House of Commons to answer urgent questions.

The NHS is facing further strikes this week as nurses walkout again today, physiotherapists on Thursday and ambulance workers on Friday.

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