Additional reporting by Alan Smith

Nursing staff have gone on strike today in a national dispute over pay and patient safety, with pickets taking place outside two Kent hospitals.

Workers from more than 55 NHS trusts in England - including the Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) - are taking part in industrial action today and tomorrow.

Dozens of staff are waving placards and making their voices heard outside the Faversham Cottage Hospital and Sevenoaks Community Hospital.

Among them is KCHFT nursing support worker and Royal College of Nursing (RCN) representative Jane Bromwich, who says the government is devaluing nursing staff.

Speaking from the picket line in Faversham this morning, she told KentOnline: "Today I'm here because the alarming number of people leaving the profession, and not being able to recruit into the profession, is causing significant staff shortages. That can have an impact on patient safety.

"I work for a really brilliant trust and I feel passionately that healthcare support workers, nursing support workers, healthcare assistants and nurses are being devalued by the government and that hurts."

Responding to concerns over the impact the strikes could have on patient safety, she said certain services - including A&E and intensive care - are excluded from the action.

"The local strike committee is working with the trust to ensure there are safe staffing numbers and no patient is going to be put at risk," she said.

Of the reaction on the street this morning, Jane said it had been mostly supportive, with wellwishers beeping their horns and even giving gifts of biscuits and cakes.

"We've had lots and lots of pips and honking and positive comments from people who are walking by," she said.

"It's actually quite heartwarming. We know the public are behind us and we really appreciate that.

"Some people are obviously concerned but I just want to reassure them that patients are not being left unsafe."

She added: "I love nursing. I'm a nursing support worker and I'm passionate about it.

"We want fair pay for all our nursing staff and we want to keep patients safe. And we want the government to come and talk to us."

In Sevenoaks, around 40 nurses joined the picket line along Seal Road, outside the community hospital.

Almost every driver passing on the busy A25 sounded their horn in support, with many winding down their windows to shout encouragement.

Samantha Metcalfe, a community nurse from Tunbridge Wells who has been in the profession for 22 years, said: "I'm worried that there is no incentive for young nurses to stay. They just do not get a living wage.

"Why should they stay when they can earn more at Lidl?"

Mrs Metcalfe said that there was already a 40% vacancy rate even before Covid. She said: "Without the proper number of nurses, patient care is at risk."

She said one advantage of being on strike was that tonight she would finally get an evening off.

She said: "People don't realise. I spend most evenings writing up reports that I don't get time to do during my shift.

"We are allowed to claim for these hours - but there isn't the time to do so.

"It's the same all through the profession. The government is already getting many free hours out of us."

Matt Pinfield-Wells is a registered nurse who started his course this year at Tonbridge Community Hospital and has four years' experience in the NHS.

He said: "There are huge staff shortages. This strike is about patient safety.

"If we don't have sufficient nurses, the patents will suffer, and the pay is not sufficient to attract people."

The industrial action follows two days of walkouts in December.

The RCN has announced that two further, bigger strikes will be held next month.

Pat Cullen, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, said nurses feel “totally heartbroken” going on strike, but feel they have no choice.

She issued a warning to the government that more strikes are on the cards, as immigration minister Robert Jenrick did not rule out nurses continuing to strike for months.

Ms Cullen told Good Morning Britain: “I would say to the Prime Minister this morning: If you want to continue to have strikes, then the voice of nursing will continue to speak up on behalf of their patients and that’s exactly what you will get.”

She said staff “are working in a crisis every single minute of the day”, adding that ignoring that was “living in a parallel universe”.

Ms Cullen added: “We will only recruit and retain our nurses if we pay them a decent wage so that they can continue to work in the health service and not have to leave to other jobs that will give them two or three pounds an hour more so they can pay their bills.”

She said there were no further talks currently planned with the Health Secretary Steve Barclay.

'Nurses are being devalued by the government and that hurts...'

Asked if “inflationary pay deals” would end up taking money out of the NHS, as Mr Barclay has said, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We can either have our focus totally on balancing the books or we can continue to respect and treat this NHS as it should be for every single patient right throughout the country.

“So, we have to address the crisis within the NHS, you will only do that by paying nurses a decent wage and filling the 47,000 unfilled posts…”

Writing in the Independent, Mr Barclay said that, while he recognises the cost-of-living pressures on NHS staff, “unaffordable pay rises” will stoke inflation.

He said: “If we provide unaffordable pay rises to NHS staff, we will take billions of pounds away from where we need it most. Unaffordable pay hikes will mean cutting patient care and stoking the inflation that would make us all poorer.”

The Health Secretary insisted there is “much common ground” between both sides of the dispute, stating that ministers “want to work with union leaders to improve the NHS and deliver better care” and that a “fair way” to a resolution can be found.

As the strikes get under way, the NHS is reminding patients to attend all their usual appointments unless they have been contacted, and to seek urgent care if needed during the strikes.

NHS England said patients should use services “wisely” by going to NHS 111 online but continuing to call 999 in a life-threatening emergency.

Thousands of operations and appointments are expected to be cancelled during the two consecutive days of strike action. Almost 30,000 needed to be rescheduled following December’s nurse strikes.

The RCN has agreed to staff chemotherapy, emergency cancer services, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care.

Some areas of mental health and learning disability and autism services are also exempt from the strike, while trusts have been told they can request staffing for specific clinical needs.

When it comes to adult A&E and urgent care, nurses will work Christmas Day-style rotas.