Nurses on strike: Peterborough nurse says ‘future of NHS on the line’ as staff feel ‘underpaid and undervalued’

A nurse at Peterborough City Hospital has said the “future of the NHS is on the line.”

It comes as nurses across the country went on strike for the second time this month on Tuesday (December 20).

Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in industrial strike action over pay, working conditions, staff shortages and patient safety.

Colleen Bryce – a clinical nurse specialist in liaison psychiatry at Peterborough City Hospital and RCN supervisor at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust picket line at Doddington Hospital, in March, – said NHS nurses are “burnt out” and “on their knees”.

"I see what it’s like in the emergency department and it’s awful,” she said. "Everything is being cut to the bone.

"[Nurses] are going into their cabins to cry before coming back out to face everybody.

"Patients are being looked after in corridors and ambulances are queued outside because they can’t discharge their patients as there are not enough beds to put them in.

"It’s truly awful. I would hate to need an emergency department at the moment and I would hate for any of my family to need an emergency department.”

Colleen claims there are “regularly 170 patients or more” in the emergency department at any one time.

“They’re all working so hard and they’re on their knees.

"Nobody feels valued. Nobody wants to be here on strike – it’s not what nurses do. We care about people, but we have no choice.

"Once we’ve lost the NHS we will never get it back – and we will bitterly regret it. It breaks my heart.

“The government need to start talking and listening to us.”

A statement published by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are working with trade unions to ensure there will be minimal disruption to patient care during the industrial action.

“Patients should continue to attend their planned appointments unless contacted to reschedule and anyone in mental health crisis should call our First Response Service via NHS 111.

Peterborough City Hospital did not part of the strike action which is part of North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.