‘Risk and responsibility are not worth the pay’ - says Chesterfield nurse as national strike impacts Derbyshire patients

About one out of every four hospitals and community services in England will be disrupted as hundreds of nurses have decided to join the strike action over the pay dispute. The industrial action follows two days of strikes in December.

Derbyshire patients have been warned of disruptions.

The strikes organised by Royal College of Nursing members are being held next to the Chesterfield Royal Hospital, by the traffic lights, and by the Walton Hospital from 8am to 8pm on both days.

Matt Tacey, 32, the picket supervisor for Chesterfield, who has been a nurse for nine years, said: “I went into nursing to be able to provide good care. Currently, it's very difficult to do that because of the number of vacancies in nursing. We have nearly 50 000 vacancies nationally.

"Inflation is on the raise which has resulted in the staff leaving, because the risk and the responsibility of what we do just aren't worth the pay. And at the minute, we're losing more nurses than we're gaining. This means patients are unsafe because they aren’t receiving the care that they need.

"We need to advocate for our patients and say enough is enough. The government needs to respond to the Royal College of nurses' demands and look at the pay because the pay is directly linked to staffing.”