DR MARTIN SCURR: All goodwill nurses earned during Covid pandemic will melt away if they strike

Everybody working in the NHS – whether as a nurse, a doctor or a carer – signed up for a life of public service. Whatever happens, the patients come first.

All of us must abide by that ancient principle: ‘First, do no harm.’ It is as right and true today as it has always been but, sadly, many health workers now regard it as a reactionary notion.

That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from reports that a large majority of 300,000 Royal College of Nursing members have voted to strike over pay.

This would absolutely be the wrong thing to do and I can only hope that many of those who voted for industrial action have done so purely as a bargaining tactic. I want to believe that the vast majority of them are crossing their fingers and praying that the dispute does not culminate in a strike.

Many other health workers’ unions, from junior doctors and physiotherapists to midwives and paramedics, have either balloted their members or are expected to do so over strike action this winter.

There’s a real risk that up to half of all NHS staff will suspend duties, not all at once but in a staged series of rolling, politically motivated walkouts. This is calculated to cause maximum disruption to every aspect of healthcare.

Everybody working in the NHS – whether as a nurse, a doctor or a carer – signed up for a life of public service. Whatever happens, the patients come first

There’s a real risk that up to half of all NHS staff will suspend duties, not all at once but in a staged series of rolling, politically motivated walkouts 

The callousness is shocking – and the cost to human life is frightening to imagine. This year has seen an escalation in the willingness of activists to put other people’s lives at risk, such as the fuel protesters who stop emergency services getting through.

But to see NHS staff adopting the same ruthless tactics is chilling. Without paramedics, ambulances cannot function. Without junior doctors, already overstretched A&E departments will be under greater pressure than ever.

Such mass action is unthinkable and I can only beg my colleagues across the health service to see sense and respect the profession they chose.

If they decide on industrial action, it could well happen before Christmas, the worst possible time for multiple reasons. The most obvious is that, with the onset of winter – as seasonal illnesses start to peak – the NHS enters a critical period.

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We are already facing appalling backlogs as a result of the pandemic.

The number waiting to start hospital treatment has topped seven million in England, an all-time high. Another 1.5 million are waiting for a scan or test. Now more than ever, hospitals need all their staff to be prepared to work overtime, putting in extra hours to fulfil the waiting list clearance initiatives.

By withdrawing their labour at this critical time, NHS workers will force even more treatments to be postponed.

The callousness is shocking – and the cost to human life is frightening to imagine. This year has seen an escalation in the willingness of activists to put other people’s lives at risk, such as the fuel protesters who stop emergency services getting through.

With deaths from cardiac disease and cancer rising steeply in the wake of the pandemic, it’s irresponsible and negligent to do anything that makes it harder for people to access the healthcare they need.

It’s also hugely frustrating to see the nurses’ union in particular throw away so much of the goodwill built up by their members during the pandemic.

When the public stood on their doorsteps every Thursday night during the first lockdown, to cheer and bang saucepans, it was a sincere expression of their gratitude and admiration. We all knew how much our health workers were sacrificing. They risked their lives for patients, and some paid the ultimate price. To squander that support would be a tragedy.

Yes, it’s deplorable that their wages, in real terms, have decreased by around 15 per cent since the economic crash of 2008. But at a time when the whole country is facing a cost of living crisis, nursing is still a comparatively well-paid job, with a good pension and a salary that is better than many others working in health and care.

Nursing has always been a vocation, and, as such, deserving of great respect. When I started work as a GP in the 1970s, nurses were still expected to wear their distinctive overcoats and hats when they left the hospital and they were held in such high regard that, if they hailed a taxi, many cabbies could be relied on to refuse payment at the end of their journey.

These days, the starched linen has been replaced by all-purpose nylon and most patients struggle to tell the difference between nursing grades. A senior nurse looks like a healthcare assistant, or a cleaner.

The Salmon Report in 1967 tried to improve the status of nurses by pushing them into hospital management.

This has had the unwanted effect of taking the most experienced nurses off the wards and trapping them behind desks in administrative roles.

As a result, nurses are no longer seen as ‘Nightingales’, who offer gentle care at the bedside and dispense calm reassurance. It’s a real loss for all of us.

Everyone in the health service deserves society’s respect – but they will not win that by going on strike.