Patients on the Pickets campaign launched!
Starting in December, the Royal College of Nursing is taking strike action for the first time in its 106-year history.
After a decade of falling pay nurses across the UK are struggling to make ends meet. Working conditions and morale have plummeted, after years of underfunding and mismanagement combined with COVID have plunged the NHS into constant crisis mode.
Nurses need and deserve far better pay and conditions - and they are absolutely right to stand up for themselves and for our NHS. With tens of thousands of nurses leaving the profession every year and hundreds of thousands of unfilled vacancies in the NHS, our entire public health system relies on nurses winning this fight.
The best way nurses can defend patient safety is to go on strike. On the 1st of December Just Treatment launched our Patients on the Picket campaign - a plan to demonstrate that patients and the public stand shoulder to shoulder with nurses in their fight for fair pay. In less than 24 hours over 500 of our supporters had signed up to join the action - pledging to go along to their nearest picket line to show their support.
More than 1000 supporters have also sent in messages declaring their backing for nurses, explaining why they support their demand for fair pay and better conditions. The government and their outriders in the media will try to drive a wedge between patients and NHS workers, but the immediate response of the public to our campaign has been an explosion of solidarity. We all know that what is good for nurses is good for patients. The future of an effective, equitable, public NHS relies upon their victory.
As Just Treatment patient leader Dinah Tarjanyi said:
“I am a long term NHS patient, and I stand in full solidarity with nurses striking for fair pay. Clapping for NHS staff isn’t enough - nurses are being dangerously overworked, and current salary levels aren’t even paying the bills for so many. For the sake of both the welfare of health workers and the safety of patients, it’s time that nurses are paid fairly. I hope that as many NHS patients as possible will join us in getting behind nurses in this critical fight for the future of our NHS.”
We hope to have NHS patients delivering messages of support, snacks, and campaign stickers to picket lines the length and breadth of the country in a clear demonstration that patients have nurses’ backs in this battle. To find out more and get involved with the Patients on the Pickets action, click here to sign up and receive our digital campaign guide!
For press enquiries about the campaign, please get in touch via hello@justtreatment.org