NHS staff smear themselves in fake blood and pretend to be dead in protest over pay

NHS staff have once again marched in central London demanding a 15% pay rise.

Campaigners smeared fake blood on themselves and lay on the street pretending to be dead in order to get their message across.

Many of them, who wore scrubs or other NHS uniforms, held banners which read “stop clapping, start paying,” “640 healthcare workers dead, blood on their hands” alongside images of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other cabinet members.

The workers, who held a similar protest on the 27 August where they also used fake blood, marched from BBC Broadcasting House in Portland Place to Trafalgar Square through central London.

The 'March for Pay' protests come after nurses were excluded from the wage increase for around 900,000 public sector workers announced in July because they are in the final year of a three-year agreement.

The pay increase does not apply to junior doctors after they agreed on a four-year deal last year.

Alia Butt, 33, an NHS psychotherapist in Essex and chair of Nurses Staff Voices, said: “We have simply had enough.

“The money is there. They are simply just not providing it to NHS staff. It turns out that the only way to ensure the NHS is able to continue to function is by the sheer force of organising.”

She added: “The Government clearly has not got a clue about what it is doing and that is very scary. Nurses saved the lives of the Prime Minister. What more do we need to do to get paid properly? It’s bizarre.”

Jordan Rivera, 43, an occupational therapist in Hackney, east London, said NHS workers are emotionally and physically tired, many are living paycheque to paycheque and the situation they have been left in is “outrageous”.

She said: “Working that hard when you are already exhausted from fighting the pandemic is an outrage.

“How can we be expected to work through a second wave when we are physically and emotionally exhausted and on top of that, we are worried about paying our bills?”

Demonstrators began the march after a two-minute silence in honour of 640 healthcare workers who have died during the pandemic.

Protests calling for a 15% increase in pay for NHS workers were also held in Manchester, Sheffield, Brighton and Bournemouth.