Nurses at Tameside Hospital are staging a second consecutive day of strike action on Tuesday (7 February). 

It’s in support of national colleagues, in the continuing dispute with the government over pay and working conditions. 

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) trade union are walking out again, while North West Ambulance Service staff also took industrial action on Monday. 

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Ashton-based hospital, says plans are in place to maintain the safety, welfare and service for patients and people should still attend scheduled appointments unless told otherwise. 

But people are advised only to attend A&E in a genuine emergency and, if this is not the case, consider other options such as visiting a pharmacist, contacting your GP or visiting www.111.nhs.uk 

With physiotherapists set to walk out on Thursday and ambulance staff again on Friday, this is set to be the most disruptive week in the 75-year history of the National Health Service, its Medical Director Stephen Powis has said. 

'We want this profession to be treated fairly'

Speaking from the picket line to the Tameside Reporter, Joanne Lester - who has been an A&E nurse for 28 years - told us they were striking in a bid to receive a restorative pay rise. 

“We want fair pay, we want better conditions for nurses, for future nurses and we want this profession to be treated fairly,” she said. 

“At the moment, the government are not engaging with the RCN and not helping our cause. We need a restorative pay rise to recruit nurses into this profession and we need safe staffing for our patients. Our patients are not being looked after in the way that they should. 

“We’re having patients waiting in A&E for a long, long time - elderly patients on chairs and trolleys for more than 24 hours sometimes. It’s got to stop, it’s got to change.” 

Jayne Highcock said the nurses were “sick” of the conditions they had to face with a chronic staff shortage on the wards and felt it’s time they were given a “decent” pay rise.

“We’re hoping the government will actually realise that the RCN is striking for the reasons that we do need a decent pay rise,” she said. “Since 2010, our pay has been decreased by 20 per cent because of inflation. 

“I’m a theatre nurse myself but A&E is now always full of patients in corridors which never used to happen. The ward staff are rushed off their feet and the patients can’t get the care they deserve. This has changed in the 33 years I’ve been in nursing.” 

'Unaffordable demands'

The RCN is calling for a 19 per cent pay rise but it has indicated that it may meet the government “halfway”. 

Unions representing ambulance workers and physiotherapists also want above-inflation pay rises but have not specified a figure. 

The government says the demands are unaffordable and would only cause more price rises, making interest rates and mortgage payments rise further, while pay rises are decided by independent pay review bodies.

Images by Nigel Wood