{"id":39434,"date":"2023-12-15T14:27:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T14:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/?p=39434"},"modified":"2026-06-10T16:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:00:57","slug":"bristol-nurses-still-struggling-after-historic-nhs-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/2023\/12\/15\/bristol-nurses-still-struggling-after-historic-nhs-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol nurses still struggling after historic NHS strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/final-nurse-strike-cs.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One year on, nurses in Bristol are still struggling after the historic strike by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which began 15 December 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Members of the RCN in England, Wales and Northern Ireland staged their biggest-ever walkout over two days in a dispute over pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Staff from North Bristol NHS Trust, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust took part. It was followed by further action throughout 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcn.org.uk\/news-and-events\/news\/uk-rcn-nhs-nursing-strikes-2022-first-day-151222\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">At the time, the RCN<\/a> said: \u201cWe\u2019re campaigning for a pay rise to overcome years of real-terms pay cuts and to protect patient safety by allowing the NHS to recruit and retain the nursing staff it desperately needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Steve Norman, a Bristol-based nurse, not much has changed since last year\u2019s action: &#8220;The situation for nurses hasn\u2019t really changed. It\u2019s continued to get worse. More and more people are leaving the profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/OUTSIDE-BRI-EDIT.jpg\" alt=\"Outside a hospital entrance\" class=\"wp-image-39436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/OUTSIDE-BRI-EDIT.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/OUTSIDE-BRI-EDIT-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/OUTSIDE-BRI-EDIT-640x366.jpg 640w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/OUTSIDE-BRI-EDIT-681x389.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nurses from Bristol Royal Infirmary were just some of the people taking part in last year&#8217;s historic strike by the Royal College of Nursing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPay hasn\u2019t continued to meet inflation and staffing numbers are still not good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Grace White, who is a staff nurse at the Emergency Department at Southmead Hospital, said there is also a reliance on using agency staff instead of permanently hiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She explained, \u201cWe\u2019re not quite there yet. Things are better, but there\u2019s still\u2026a desperate need for nurses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt feels like there\u2019s a lot of money going into agency staff. But equally, it does mean we have got more staff \u2013 the North Bristol [NHS] Trust [is] trying to keep us afloat by getting in agency nurses. I just don\u2019t know how sustainable that is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to an analysis by the RCN released this December, three-quarters of nursing jobs in NHS England could be filled if money was redirected to hiring permanent staff instead of agency. It added, \u201cCash spent on agencies could cover the salaries of 30,956 permanent full-time equivalent nurses paid at the top of a Band 5 salary (\u00a334,581).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Royal College of Nursing is the world\u2019s largest nursing union and professional body. It represents nearly half a million nurses, student nurses, midwives and nursing support workers in the UK and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One year on, nurses in Bristol are still struggling after the historic strike by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which began 15 December 2022. Members of the RCN in England, Wales and Northern Ireland staged their biggest-ever walkout over two days in a dispute over pay. Staff from North Bristol NHS Trust, University Hospitals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1763,1774],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39434"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39506,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39434\/revisions\/39506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}