Wow. You don’t speak for me. Don’t assume your views are shared by everyone who has gone through the unspeakable trauma of watching a loved one die whilst waiting for an ambulance.
I watched my Dad die when I was in my 20s and will never forget the horror of his final moments, whilst waiting for that ambulance to arrive.
There was no strike action that night. But if we had been made to wait longer due to strikes, I can only imagine the impact it would have had on my mental health. I’d just been discharged from hospital after undergoing a craniotomy a few weeks before he died. I would have spent the rest of my life wondering ‘what if’… what if he could have been saved if only they had come quicker?
What if… what if… what if…
My Mum was in pieces as we waited in the ‘relatives room’- the exact same room she and my Dad had sat in when my sister died in that same hospital.
But grief doesn’t give me the right to point the finger at anyone I please.
Surely you realise they are striking for a reason? Have you considered the reasons they are striking? Have you considered who put them in that position to start with? Why aren’t you angry with the people whose decisions have led to this strike action?
Yes we need them to stop striking, so LET THEM STOP. They are not doing this for fun.
I’ve been watching politicians, who know nothing about the work nurses do, spout vile nonsense on tv and tell us that nurses are not concerned about patient safety on strike days…
They are worried about patient safety, EVERY SINGLE DAY… and that concern is contributing significantly to these strikes.
Why are you focussing on the instances when strike action contributes to pressure on services and ignoring the constant pressure on services that is creating the need for NHS workers to strike in the first place?
I almost died last Thursday due to haemorrhaging during a miscarriage. Last Thursday was a strike day.
I called 999 and they put me on hold. I can tell you exactly what it felt like to be in need of emergency medical attention, when a strike significantly affected services. They initially told me an ambulance could be ‘several hours’.
I called my mum, my wife, my best friend and none of them picked up.
I started to feel nauseous and dizzy, my vision and hearing were becoming distorted… I thought FUCK. What if I pass out and die and nobody comes? My 22 month old son is going to be all on his own. He’ll be completely traumatised.
In order to get off the toilet, to leave my flat, to alert someone (anyone!) I was haemorrhaging, I had three maxi incontinence pads on and I still bled through my jeans in minutes. I would have died without medical intervention. And without finding a neighbour, I would have been alone with my toddler.
I called 999 three times before they sent paramedics. Who were incredible. As were the staff in A&E and the entire team who performed emergency surgery and gave me two blood transfusions.
I am not angry with staff who are striking… because it is not their actions creating this shit show. It is the poor choices and lack of action by the government.
If I had died, no matter how angry or sad or devastated or unfair it would have felt/ been… it would have had nothing to do with the people striking and everything to do with the reasons why they are striking- issues not of their making.
They don’t want to strike. They have family too. They are humans who may need medical attention themselves, just like the rest of us. It’s dangerous for all of us when they strike.
So let’s think about why they are striking and who has the power to stop the strikes.
If someone I love dies as a result of strikes, the people with blood on their hands will not be the NHS staff, working day in, day out, to preserve life, but the people who drove them to strike.
My grief would not change that. The depth of my emotions, no matter how great, cannot change facts. You don’t get to re-write reality because something terrible and unfair is happening to you.
This isn’t a game. This isn’t a joke. Everyone who needs emergency medical care is at risk. So it is absolutely vital that solutions are based on reality, not misplaced blame, fuelled by fear, greed and ignorance.
When I was bleeding to death I needed emergency medical intervention. If the people I needed hadn’t turned up, then as far as I’m concerned, the blame lies with the government, who have left NHS workers feeling that the least worst option was to take strike action.
The RCN says that unfairly low pay in their profession is driving chronic understaffing, putting patients at risk and leaving nursing staff overworked, underpaid and undervalued.
Your answer is to keep pushing them over the edge? And if they dare to stand up for themselves and their patients, you’ll blame them for the consequences of strike action?
What about all the nurses who have left their profession? Are you going to go and knock on their doors and tell them people are dying because they left their jobs? That you’ve decided they have a duty to keep working, regardless of their own well-being, free will and despite the working conditions?
I assume you are a nurse? And if not, I assume you will be training as a nurse and spending the rest of your life working for the NHS? You won’t be intentionally letting people die through your own selfish lack of action? Surely if people are dying, the least you can do is become a nurse and accept any working conditions thrown at you? When lives are at risk, surely all your own needs, limitations, job preferences go straight out the window and you just do what has to be done? The irony is, that’s exactly what so many NHS workers end up doing on a daily basis.
Your entire argument seems to be based on playing on people’s emotions, “You’ll soon be agreeing with me when you or a loved one dies”. Well here I am… devastated by grief and yet I disagree with you entirely.