Ameera, 30, a nurse based in London, is at breaking point. “If nurses leave, the NHS is going to crumble,” she says. “There is no NHS without nurses.” Ameera’s been a qualified nurse for seven years and has worked as a healthcare assistant in the NHS since she was 17. The conditions in nursing have been getting “progressively worse” over the last few years, she says.

“Right now, it’s exhausting. You’re not able to give the care that you want to give to each patient as a nurse because you don’t have the time.” To give an example – on a ward, there should be one nurse to four patients, but some nurses are having to look after up to 12 patients at once, she says. “That’s how understaffed the majority of the hospitals are. We’re exhausted emotionally and physically.” 

The NHS staffing crisis is a serious issue right now. According to the Nuffield Trust, 40,000 nurses have left the profession in the last year alone. As well as the pressures of staffing, nurses are struggling with rising costs of living and salaries that aren’t keeping up with inflation. Research by London Economics, commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), found that since 2010, the salary of an experienced nurse has fallen by 20% in real terms in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.