A psychiatric nurse spoke of colleagues having to use foodbanks to get by – as scores took to Oxford’s streets in support of better pay for NHS staff.
Wendy Stark, a nurse for 37 years, told the Oxford Mail: “There are nurses I know who are going to the foodbanks. People can’t afford to live in Oxford. They’re forced to work for agencies; forced because the cost of living is so high.”
She was speaking at a march organised by campaign group SOS NHS. More than 100 people walked from Cowley Road to Bonn Square in central Oxford – shouting ‘pay rise now’ as they walked.
Protesters called for ‘fair pay’ for NHS staff, with organisers SOS NHS warning that ‘staffing shortages will cost lives’.
There were long queues on the roads as vehicles on Cowley Road and Magdalen Bridge waited patiently behind the marchers.
Ms Stark said: “The NHS in Oxford has a huge recruitment and retention crisis. It’s because of pay. People can’t afford to live off NHS wages and stay in Oxford.
“What’s the route to deal with the recruitment crisis? The [NHS] trust employs agency staff. So, agency staff come from Birmingham, they come from Bristol and they’re haemorrhaging the budget.
“Local people who work in Oxford and work for the NHS trust no longer get paid overtime. Everything we work over 37.5 hours we get the basic rate. But agency staff will get much more.”
She called for a local weighting for NHS staff living in Oxford, following the example of employers in the capital.
Shirley Bodman, who works in an Oxford hospital laboratory, said the hospitals struggled to retain staff. “Young people won’t want to work for the kind of low pay; they can’t live on it.”
Dr Jacqui Ferguson said: “I love the NHS. I’ve worked for the NHS for years and we need it. It’s being very much threatened by private companies trying to take it out of our hands.”
John Paine, secretary for the Oxfordshire National Pensioner’s Convention, told the Mail: “We’re very concerned about the NHS, as the National Pensioners’ Convention has been for years. We’re here [at the march] in solidarity with other people.
“We’re also concerned about the social care service and the knock-on effect of people not being able to leave hospital because they haven’t got the care facilities available to look after them.”
Paula Robinson said: “I’m 66 and I worked in the NHS over 12 years. I’m very frightened about what’s happening. I feel the government’s trying to privatise it.”
Dr Hojjat Ramzy said: “We’re protesting for the benefit of the NHS. We say the NHS is not for sale.”
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