Support nurses to save our NHS

I’M asking everyone to show their support for our nurses when they strike in December.

We could all come out with placards and saucepans in our high streets, on picket lines, or outside our MPS’ offices.

The NHS is the country’s greatest asset. Without good health we have nothing. With good health we can work to provide for ourselves and our families.

Private health insurance is fine for the very rich or healthy but if you become ill, have a life-changing accident, or chronic illness, the premiums become unaffordable.

Our nurses are the backbone of the NHS. We all supported them when they worked through the pandemic without proper PPE.

They are overworked and underpaid and need our support.

Christine Gale, Chippenham, Wilts

Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s alleged proposal of free tea and coffee and parking for our loyal and hardworking nurses is farcical (Mirror, November 29).

It’s obvious they should already be entitled to these things. Nurses wouldn’t be in the predicament of having to make the heart-rending decision to withdraw their labour if the Tories hadn’t blatantly tried to destroy the morale of our NHS staff to try to bring the health service down.

A simple solution to end the threat of strikes is to give nurses the decent pay and conditions they richly deserve.

Neil Atherton

St Helens, Merseyside

The Government is basically ignoring the nurses’ demands for a pay rise, which tells us exactly what the Tories think of the NHS.

Those who criticise the strike action should be aware this vindictive Government will attempt to use the strikes to their political advantage and to demoralise them.

If the strikes last any length of time and nurses go back to work broken, the NHS will probably collapse. The nurses deserve everything they are asking for.

Ted Rendchen, Atherstone, Warks

Having worked in the NHS for more than 50 years, I’m so sad to see it crumbling due to the Government’s bad decisions, poor pay, exodus of staff and attempts to bring in privatisation by the back door. I remember my parents dancing around the kitchen when they heard about free healthcare.

The current situation can be resolved with some reorganisation and the reintroduction of free training for nurses. The NHS is

something this country should be proud of and grateful for.

D E Mundy, Esher, Surrey

If this government finishes off the NHS, they will be sunk into oblivion in future elections, just like the old Liberal Party.

I believe 100 years from now, the NHS will still be the envy of the world – but we need a Labour government. With a Labour leader like Keir Starmer and his able deputy Angela Rayner, the future of the health service will be secured.

Michael Lugger, Exeter

Surely, I’m not alone thinking the Tories are deliberately suppressing NHS wages so staff leave? This would give them an excuse to privatise it and line their pockets. I can’t understand people who vote Tory, especially those in poverty.

Has Britain lost its marbles?

Raymond Myers, Leeds

The only certainty on the strikes is if they don’t happen, nurses won’t get a penny more from the Tory Government. They only care about their own bank accounts.

P Cresswell

Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh