Nurses are like workers in every other profession - they vary between excellent, lazy/mediocre, and some are a menace to those that they are supposed to be helping.
I feel for those in A&Es at the moment - ours is like a madhouse, much of it because patients can't get to see their GPs. The staff there are running around for hours trying to get through the people waiting.
However, on wards, it can be very different. My DH is in hospital a fair amount, and the care varies tremendously. Certainly no ward I've been in suggests staff running around with no time to use a toilet!
I don't think they are that badly paid, to be honest, although I get that they (like most others) have lost money through inflation etc. I don't believe they need food banks.
But, we do need to employ more NHS staff, so wages will have to rise. I also think the NHS needs reform - it's an inefficient monolith that never changes, regardless of how many billions are thrown at it.
I don't think the strike will work - the government are willing to sit it out, because they know the public are getting "strikes weary" and support for all the strikers is starting to slide.
My sympathies lie with care workers, both community and care home. They work their socks off, with massive staff shortages, get a pittance in wages, and often badly treated by employers. I'd like to see them given a statutory large pay rise.🙁
Workers are entitled to stop providing labour, so if a strike is what they feel they need, then that's their right. But, as Labour has also said they won't be dishing out large pay rises either, if they get into power, I'm not sure much will change.
Not providing adequate care in A&E, Cancer units and ITUs seems a step too far though.