As A Man Collapses On The Street, Striking Nurses Rush To His Aid From The Picket Line

Nurses rushed from a picket line to the aid of a man who collapsed in the street.

The striking staff raced to provide emergency first aid to the male after he fell over just metres from the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) main entrance.

The patient was put into the recovery position and was visibly shaking on the ground outside, as temperatures dropped as low as -8C.

Within ten minutes staff working at BRI came out to collect the patient, putting him on a spinal board and lifting him onto a stretcher.

The striking nurses returned to the picket line shortly afterwards.

Discussing the walkouts Paula Byrne, 58, a Nurse Specialist, said that she’s been a nurse for 40 years next year and she had genuine concerns, among herself and her coworkers, about the future of nursing.

She said that every day they’re seeing nurses working under tremendous stress with great challenges, and contributing a huge amount of charity and goodwill to maintain patient care so that was a real concern for her.

She said that what they’ve seen over the last ten years is austerity, austerity measures, public sector pay cuts, and rising costs and find that nurses know their daily living and quality of living have gone downhill.

She said that the staffing in the NHS is the most valuable asset it has, so if they don’t protect their assets, they’re not going to have a future in healthcare because there won’t be any nurses.

She said that this wasn’t about making things difficult for patients, though they do appreciate that there’s going to be some suffering involved, but unfortunately, that’s where they’re at to hopefully bring about some transformation.

Councillor Lorraine Francis, 56, isn’t a nurse but has a health care role at Avon and Wiltshire Partnership (mental health team).

She said that she believed that it was really important for nurses to be recognised for the hard work they actually do and that through the pandemic, no one in their team had been off, they’ve just been working, as usual, so she thought it was really important to take a couple of hours out to support the picket line.

It’s all a plan to privatise everything and it’s part of the Tory’s plans, but what they should be doing is saving the NHS.

But what we should be doing is returning to the key issue.

For the first time in its history, the Royal College of Nursing is engaged in strike action, but ask yourself why.

Are they Commies, Marxists or Militants – no! They’re just fed up with being offered pay deals which means some nurses still have to go cap in hand for supplemental payments and visit food banks.

They’re sick and tired of being told how much they’re valued and then booted in the teeth for asking for a living wage.

They can also see the open corruption, conceit and incompetence of their government which rewards its backers, tolerates parliamentary abuse of power and treats the common people with open disdain, and that’s why they’re making a stand, and that’s why they’re prepared to lose money before Christmas.

The facts are there to see, the Tories have destroyed this once great country of ours, and our government are to blame because no person goes on strike without reasonable cause.

Well done to our nurses, and it’s shocking how our government have turned their backs on the NHS when it comes to decent pay, but they were quick to push us to breaking point through the pandemic, and they should pay up now!