Nurses in Lancaster have joined in nationwide industrial action over a pay dispute.
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union members across 55 health trusts, including Morecambe Bay, were on strike on Wednesday and Thursday.
They lined the roadside outside the Royal Lancaster Infirmary calling for fairer pay for nurses to "help tackle chronic staff shortages by enabling the NHS to recruit and retain the nursing staff it desperately needs".
They chanted: "One, two, three, four, we won't take it any more! Five, six, seven, eight, come on Rishi, negotiate!" in a direct call to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who visited Morecambe on Thursday.
The governments in England and Wales have given NHS staff an average of 4.75 per cent pay rise, with everyone guaranteed at least £1,400 - as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body - less than half the rate of inflation.
Lizzi Collinge, county councillor for Lancaster East, joined nurses during their industrial action in Lancaster on Thursday. Picture from County Councillor Collinge's Facebook page.
Nurses want to force the UK government to open talks on the below-inflation NHS pay award for this financial year.
If progress on isn’t made by the end of January, the RCN said strike action will be escalated on February 6 and 7 to include members at 73 NHS trusts in England and all but one NHS employer in Wales.
RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: “Today’s strike action by nursing staff is a modest escalation before a sharp increase in under three weeks from now. If a week is a long time for Rishi Sunak, three weeks is the time he needs to get this resolved.
“People aren’t dying because nurses are striking. Nurses are striking because people are dying. That is how severe things are in the NHS and it is time the Prime Minister led a fight for its future.
“Today’s record number of unfilled nurse jobs cannot be left to get worse. Pay nursing staff fairly to turn this around and give the public the care they deserve.”
The RCN agreed to staff chemotherapy, emergency cancer services, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care during the industrial action.
Some areas of mental health and learning disability and autism services were also exempt from the strike, while trusts were told they could request staffing for specific clinical needs.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said while he recognises the cost of living pressures on NHS staff, "unaffordable pay rises" will stoke inflation.
Mr Barclay also signalled that pay negotiations will look ahead to next year rather than reflecting on the 2022/23 pay award, which unions have said must be reviewed.
Nearly three in five Britons (57 per cent) think the government is more to blame than nurses (9 per cent) for the ongoing pay row lasting so long, according to a new Ipsos poll of 1,080 British adults, carried out earlier this month.
Here is a video of nurses protesting outside the Royal Lancaster Infirmary on Thursday
The strikes came as the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Morecambe as the town was awarded £50m to build a new Eden Project North.
During an audience at The Platform in Morecambe (pictured below), Mr Sunak promised more help for the NHS, particularly to cut operation waiting lists, but did not directly address the nurses pay issue.
"The NHS is under pressure, we recognise that, and we are doing everything we can to make a life a bit better," he said.
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