Nurses strikes show staff dissatisfaction - Suffolk hospital boss

Nurse strikes are happening across the country including at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (pictured), West Suffolk Hospital and Ipswich and Colchester hospitals

Strike action being taken by nurses showed the "levels of dissatisfaction" among staff in the NHS, a hospital boss said.

Royal College of Nursing members are walking out on Wednesday and Thursday, affecting about one out of every four hospitals and community services.

The union is in a dispute over pay.

Craig Black, interim chief executive at the West Suffolk Hospital, said the walkout would make dealing with a "backlog" of care "more challenging".

But, he said: "I think it is a reflection of levels of dissatisfaction across staff within the health service at the moment."

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Mr Black said the hospital, in Bury St Edmunds, had about 800 or 900 members of staff who were RCN members and a "proportion of those staff that will be out on strike".

Among those is district nurse and picket supervisor Jo Dominey, who said they were striking for the "future of nursing, the future of the NHS".

"We need more pay because we need to be able to compete with other workplaces; our nurses are leaving in droves; we're just desperate," she said.

"The conditions are just awful; they're so heavy; we have twice the amount of work than 10 years ago; it's just never-ending.

"We don't feel supported and we're certainly not being paid enough to attract people into nursing."

West Suffolk Hospital district nurse and picket supervisor Jo Dominey said working conditions were "awful"

Meanwhile, at Colchester Hospital in Essex, about 100 people joined the picket line.

The strike action is also happening at Ipswich Hospital and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

It comes after two days of strikes before Christmas in the row over pay and conditions.

The BBC estimated about 100 people had joined the picket line outside Colchester Hospital before midday

The RCN has asked for a pay rise of 5% above the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation.

Inflation changes from month to month, but using December's RPI inflation data, that would equate to a pay rise of 18.4%, the government said.

Andre Dos Santos, RCN Suffolk branch chairman, said the strike action "was not just about pay, this is a generational transformation".

"We want to ensure [the future of] our profession - we love our NHS, we love to look after our communities," he said.

The governments in England and Wales have given NHS staff an average pay rise of 4.75%, with everyone guaranteed at least £1,400 - as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said he had "constructive talks" with the RCN and other unions and looked "forward to continuing that dialogue".

There was a line of picketers on Heath Road, outside Ipswich Hospital

What patients need to know

• People seriously ill or injured, and whose life is at risk, should call 999 as usual, or call 111 for non-urgent care

• Other services, such as some cancer treatments or urgent testing, may be partially staffed

• More routine care is likely to be badly affected, including planned operations such as knee and hip replacements, community nursing services and health visiting

• Anyone with an appointment not already rearranged should attend at their allotted time

• GPs, community pharmacies and dentists will be unaffected