Striking nurses at Alder Hey say they’ve been ‘overwhelmed’ by public support

Striking nurses at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital say they’ve been overwhelmed by support they’ve had for their action.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing out in freezing temperatures on the picket line have been inundated with deliveries of pizza and McDonalds, as well as hot drinks from members of the public.

They’ve also had backing from bosses at the hospital itself, and from colleagues who have been working and covering shifts but joining them on their breaks.

“There’s been about a couple of hundred of us out on East Prescot Road, just opposite Sainsbury’s, and people have been going in and buying us big tubs of chocolates and selection boxes and bringing them over,” said senior mental health nurse Sue Middleton. 

“The dockers have come and stood on the picket line with us and the reaction from people has been incredible. Everyone is beeping their horns, including ambulances on their way into the hospital, and people have been cheering as they drive past.

“One elderly man walked past us and said, ‘you do realise that everyone is behind you, every one of you’ and it’s so nice to hear something like that. That’s been the thing people have been telling us all day, just how strongly they support us.”

Sue says the strike action, the first in the Royal College of Nursing’s 106-year history, is about far more than pay.

“Alder Hey is supporting us through this which is important for people to know because this is not about us protesting against the hospital, it’s about the Government not speaking to us. 

“This is about the state of the NHS. I think we take for granted the NHS because it’s just always been there but there’s a real risk it won’t be for much longer, younger people in 10 or 20 years’ time won’t have the same access to health services that they used to. 

“When I trained 24 years ago, I got a bursary which helped me through my training because effectively you are working on the wards. Now our students don’t get that so we’re not getting the same volume of students coming through. There is so much understaffing in the NHS because they can’t recruit to fill positions so everyone is exhausted, it’s just burn-out. 

“When the pandemic hit, within five days I went from working in a service that was virtually 9-5 and 10-6 at the weekend to working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all of us just did it, no one complained. 

“Everyone was clapping us on a Thursday night then, Boris Johnson was out there because nurses looked after him when he had Covid, but where are they now? They won’t even speak to the general secretary of the RNC Pat Cullen.”

With temperatures around zero, Sue says it’s been bitterly cold on the picket line but the nurses are determined to carry on to get their message across.

“I’ve been here since 8am and I’ll be here all day, on my day off. I’ve got two jumper dresses on, a jumper, woolly leggings and three pairs of socks and I’m still absolutely freezing but we’re not letting that stop us.

“The RCN have coordinated the action with hospital managers, there’s been a lot of thought put into it so that patient safety is protected all the time. We’re nurses, we don’t want to put people’s lives at risk, that’s the issue. I didn’t go into nursing to become wealthy, I went into nursing because it was a vocation. I care about people and I’m very passionate about that.”