Could you cope with this lot, Mr Hunt? Nurse’s challenge to Health Secretary
ACCORDING to nurse Nicola Kitchin, this picture encapsulates life at the sharp end of NHS care.
The critical care nurse posted the image to Facebook with a challenge to the Health Secretary to step into her shoes for an hour.
Referring to the machines around an intensive care bed, Mrs Kitchen, 37, told Jeremy Hunt: ‘Keep all this going for an hour, then tell nurses they are not worthy of a pay rise!’
The mother- of-two uploaded the image, which has been shared online 52,000 times, on Saturday as junior doctors prepared for their since-aborted strike.
Mrs Kitchin, from Worcester, said: ‘When I saw the picture it really struck a nerve with me. I just thought you know what, come and have a go and see how you do for an hour – let alone a 12-and-a-half-hour shift.
‘The picture is a window into my working life. When you actually look at it you think my goodness, how do I do that every day and save lives by keeping it all going, and you realise there are not actually many people who could do what we do.
‘The NHS relies on the goodwill of its staff – working through coffee breaks and lunchtimes and staying beyond the ends of their shifts to help patients in need. But there will come a point where there is only so much doctors and nurses can give.’
An intensive care nurse earns about £24,950 a year – and according to the Royal College of Nursing they have not had a rise since 2009.
Mrs Kitchin, whose husband Dave, 50, is a psychiatric nurse in a prison, completed a three-year diploma to qualify as a nurse in 2000. She worked full-time in a hospital critical care unit until earlier this year, but had to take a second job to support her family.
She now works for a nursing agency alongside her other role running an online sales and networking business.
Mrs Kitcheen did not take the picture herself but shared it from a nursing page on Facebook. She said: ‘I seem to have touched upon something which resonates with people and it is heartening to see that nurses are still valued by the public. Nurses are facing increasing workloads but have had no pay rise in the last few years.
‘We have taken a pay cut in real terms as inflation has risen and I really do think we deserve a pay rise. It just feels like the Govern- ment think so lowly of us and that is just heartbreaking, because I love my job as a nurse.’
Patients will have to wait more than two months for vital scans and operations because of yesterday’s called-off strike. Hospitals had already cancelled 3,400 operations and 17,500 appointments. Some patients will have to wait until February for procedures while others will not be booked in until well after Christmas.