Nurses 'reluctantly' take to the picket lines in Shropshire in support of union pay demand
Nurses took to the picket line in Shrewsbury in support of their strike for more pay and relief from crippling workloads.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing including district nurses, and mental health staff held placards and wore bibs outside the offices on Shropshire Community Heath Trust in Mytton Oak Road.
But the dispute is not with their employers but with the Government who they want to talk to about issues in the profession, including pay and terms and conditions.
Members voted to take strike action at ShropCom and at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry. The strike does not include RCN members at the acute hospitals at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospitals NHS Trust.
Vicky Hincks, 52, a team leader and district nurse for 26 years, said: "I never thought I would be on a picket line here today.
"For me it is about recruitment and retention, to attract people to the profession and to get them to stay.
"It's not about our employer though, it is a national dispute."
She added that she found it really sad that there would have been more people on the picket line but "they cannot afford to take one day without pay."
Community nursing sister Hannah Mitchell, 34, covers the Pontesbury area alongside her team who are feeling overworked.
"Nurses do not want to strike but we feel so passionate about the situation," she said. "We are torn about striking. All our patients are safe but nurses do struggle with the idea of striking but we deserve it. We do not want to have to do this but we have got to make a stand sometime."
Deb Evans, the RCN's community lead is based in London but lives in Montgomery, said; "I have never known such problems in the service with staffing numbers, retention and burnout. There aren't enough skilled people being retained to deliver the care that patients need.
"Nurses are exhausted. The Government needs to get round the table."
Vikki Logan, 32, is based in Telford but is a part of a team providing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services across Shropshire. They have a team of between 18 and 20 providing services across Shropshire and Telford.
"There is a lot of demand from young people and they are needing support. We are trying to encourage people to join the profession."
