The campaign to beat the pandemic

Take action: Demand emergency funding for the NHS now! #SOSNHS

Zero Covid UK is affiliated to the SOS NHS campaign. Click here to add your name to the petition for emergency funding! Read the text of the petition by Holly Johnstone below.

As an NHS nurse, I have seen first hand the effect the pandemic has had on our patients, staff, and service. The NHS was already underfunded, but now it is at breaking point. We need an urgent injection of funds to save our health service, and we need it now.

We really feel the pressure of the 100,000 vacancies in the NHS, which means we are understaffed and often having to do the job of more than one person. The workload is impossible. Staff are leaving because they have had enough and there is little incentive to stay or join the NHS.

The safety of our patients and conditions for staff have been getting worse even prior to the pandemic – and it has been happening for over 10 years. We’ve seen our pay eroded meanwhile our responsibilities and skills have only increased and lots of staff are struggling to make ends meet.

We are paying for this crisis with our mental and physical health and in our pay packets and our patients are suffering all the time as a direct consequence.

But my NHS colleagues and I are determined to save our health service. That’s why we’re joining together with the major health unions and over 40 organisations to call on this government to act, to improve the health service, and to safeguard it for future generations

Our demands are:

1. Approve emergency funding of £20 billion to save lives this winter.
2. Invest in a fully publicly owned NHS and guarantee free healthcare for future generations.
3. Pay staff properly: without fair pay, staffing shortages will cost lives.

Across the NHS we are united in saying ‘SOS NHS’, and we need your support too. Will you sign my petition to help save the NHS?

Image via @KeepNHSPublic.