Molly Scott Cato MEP backs action as nurses vote to strike

Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the South West and the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Bristol West, has pledged her support for frontline NHS staff, as nurses vote in support of strike action [1]. She said:
 
“Nurses have not reached this decision lightly. Almost a decade of pay cuts and massive staff shortages have forced them to this point. I stand in solidarity with nurses and offer them my full support in their decision. Nurses are dangerously overstretched and grossly underpaid.”
 
“Nurses have seen their real-terms pay slashed and slashed again; almost 10% since 2008 [2], with a Tory government promising another 12% cut by 2021 [3]. This is an unacceptable attack on the people who are there when we need them the most.”
 
“Thanks to the Conservatives’ ideological commitment to dismantling our precious NHS, we are also currently short of 20,000 nurses [4]. That means the dedicated 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 [5]. At the same time, applications by students wanting to get into nursing have dropped 23% since the Nurses bursary was abolished [6]. The scheme provided essential financial help for thousands of talented aspiring Nurses.”
 
“Nurses are the bedrock of our NHS; the unsung heroes of our healthcare service and dedicated and committed miracle workers, that they have been forced to contemplate strike action is a damning indictment of a Conservative government wilfully destroying our precious NHS.”
 
“I 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.