Molly Scott Cato issues heartfelt thanks to Bristol nurses on Nurses’ Day
12.05.17
Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the South West, has pledged to be a ‘powerful advocate’ for nurses as the parliamentary candidate for Bristol West and has issued a heartfelt message of thanks to the city’s nurses on Nurses’ Day [1].
Molly said:
“I am delighted to take this moment to celebrate our hardworking nurses; they are truly the bedrock of our NHS. The unsung heroes of our healthcare service are dedicated and committed miracle workers but, sadly, they are far too often underappreciated.”
“Nurses are overstretched and underpaid. Thanks to the Conservatives’ ideological commitment to dismantling our precious NHS, we are currently short 20,000 nurses [2]. That means the staff we do have are forced to do the work of two or sometimes three people.”
“The situation is set to get bleaker too; Theresa May’s plans for an extreme Brexit puts at risk the jobs of 40,000 nurses, according to the Department of Health [3]. At the same time, applications by students wanting to get into nursing have dropped 23% since the Nurses bursary was abolished [4]. The scheme provided essential financial help for thousands of talented aspiring Nurses.”
“Nurses have also seen their real-terms pay slashed and slashed again; almost 10% since 2008 [5], with a Tory government promising another 12% cut by 2021 [6]. This is an unacceptable attack on the people who are there when we need them the most.”
“On Nurses’ Day, I want to take the opportunity to thank our Nurses for everything they do to change our lives for the better. But I also want to promise, that, as a Green MP, I will be a powerful advocate for Nurses in Bristol and across the country. Only the Green Party is committed to reinstating a fully funded, truly public NHS; paying our nurses fairly; restoring the Nurses bursaries, and; fighting an extreme Brexit.”
Only the Green Party is united in its commitment to the NHS Reinstatement Bill [7] and the repeal of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 [8] which forced a commercialised model on the NHS in England.
