How will you protect the patients if you’re on a picket line? I ask a nurse friend, somewhat anxiously. “It’s funny,” she muses. “We are too important to strike; but not important enough to be properly paid.” As Britain heads into a winter of discontent, nurses who worked tirelessly through the pandemic deserve a hearing more than any other public sector group. But it’s not only better pay they need. The NHS has failed them at every level.The Royal College of Nursing is demanding pay rises of 5 per cent above inflation, which the government can’t afford. But nor can the country afford inaction. Cancer backlogs have reached all-time highs. Poor health has become a brake on economic growth.
如果你站在罷工糾察線上，你要怎樣去保護病人呢？我有點憂慮地問一位護士朋友。“太有意思了，”她沉吟道，“我們太重要了，以至于不能罷工；但又不夠重要，無法得到適當的報酬?！彪S著英國進入一個充斥著不滿情緒的冬天，在疫情期間不知疲倦地工作的護士比其他任何公共部門群體都更應該得到傾聽。但他們需要的不僅僅是更高的薪酬。英國國家醫療服務體系(NHS)在各個層面都辜負了他們。