NHS pay: 'Politicians need to get their priorities right'

I worked wherever I was needed in the spring of 2020. I caught COVID early on but thankfully recovered; other colleagues in my hospital didn’t. It was devastating but we continued working despite our own personal grief because our patients needed us. The NHS needed us.

Working at that time was a privilege but have politicians forgotten already how hard that was and how important the work we do is?

Despite everything we did then and everything we continue to do, here we are having to ask for fair pay. When I speak to my colleagues about this, so many of us feel the same: we must act now, and we need to vote “yes” to strike action. 

I want to be with patients, and I love looking after them and helping them in any way I can. I get so much satisfaction out of doing this job, but satisfaction doesn’t pay the bills.

It doesn’t make sense not to recognise the importance of the NHS

My 20-year-old grandson has just started working in a factory and I’m delighted he has found himself a good job. But after all my years of experience, doing an essential role, from day one he is earning more than me and his mother, my daughter, who is also a health care support worker.  

How will we recruit new health care support workers into the NHS when young people can go elsewhere and earn more without having to deal with the pressures we deal with every day? This is the only job I ever want to do, but it’s not easy. 

Alongside my clinical work, I am the person who sits with patients when doctors are conducting sometimes unpleasant procedures. I am the person who sits with patients to provide comfort after they’ve been given bad news. I am the person who stays behind to wait with them if their ambulance hasn’t arrived. 

Politicians need to ask themselves how any of us would manage without the NHS

It doesn’t make sense not to pay people like me a fair wage. It doesn’t make sense not to recognise the importance of the NHS.  

I have no doubt in my mind, without safe nursing staff numbers, the NHS is at risk. Politicians need to ask themselves how any of us would manage without the NHS. They need to get their priorities right now.