Nurses in Cambridge have joined demands on the government to lift the one percent pay cap on NHS staff - as it was revealed many are taking up second jobs just to eat.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and 13 NHS trade unions have called on ministers to ensure pay matches inflation.

Unions are also asking for an additional £800 consolidated lump sum for all staff to make up for years of lost pay.

Carol Evans, chair of the RCN Cambridgeshire branch, said she had never seen the workforce as "on its knees" as it is today.

Carol Evans, chair of the RCN Cambridgeshire branch

Carol, a mental health nurse who has worked on wards and in the community, explained that many of her colleagues had been forced to take up second jobs or work through nursing agencies to make ends meet.

"[It is] so they afford to get their kids' school uniforms and pay the rent," she said. "That means they are not getting enough rest time."

"I know by the end of the month I'm using my credit card because I simply don't have the money do my supermarket shop.

"I don't own a car, I don't go out. All my pay goes on my outgoings there's very little at the end of the month for anything else."

The RCN intends to submit evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body of the toll years of pay restraint has had on workforce motivation, morale and recruitment.

Carol said that nurses had faced a 14 per cent real terms cut in wages since 2010.

"It's gone on now for seven years," she said. "Nurses and other public sector workers are paying the price for that and leaving the profession in droves because they can't sustain the level of debt they are getting into."

Carol argued that in Cambridgeshire, where there are three major hospitals and a large mental health service, it is becoming "increasingly difficult" to recruit staff.

"That's a lot to do with the cost of living," she said. "In Cambridge, no-one can afford to live on a nurse's wage. We have said consistently we cannot continue to not have people able to afford to live in Cambridge."

A nurse for 35 years, Carol added: "At the moment people are desperate.

"People are desperate to leave. We all love our job and we're told how wonderful we are.

"That can be patronising when we are flogging our guts out and then have to go own to the foodbank to feed our children.

"This has gone on long enough. People are suffering. Patients are suffering."

Nurses are angry that their pay rises have been capped at one per cent since 2010

Carol said it was nurses' sense of duty and commitment to patients that kept nurses working in the health service.

"No one goes into nursing for the money," she added. "They want to make a difference to people's lives, to support them and give them care.

"That's what's at the heart of what everyone does.

"We don't like to see patients suffering. Many nurses will stay longer at the end of shifts.

"People's health is in our hands. We're not going to leave them.

"It's the work that we love, [but] it's the conditions and everything that goes with it that makes it difficult."

A government spokesman said: "Public sector workers, including NHS staff, do a fantastic job and the Government is committed to ensuring they can continue to deliver world-class public services.

"The Government will continue to ensure that the overall package is fair while also being affordable to taxpayers as a whole.

"The detail of 2018/19 pay remits for specific Pay Review Bodies will be discussed and agreed as part of the Budget process and will be set out in due course."
