A Suffolk nurse has described how "tired" and underpaid health professionals increasingly feel they are unable to provide safe care after she wrote to MPs explaining why she had voted to go on strike. 

Xylina Hogan, 37, a mental health nurse at Ipswich Hospital, has written to two secretaries of state for health and social care, including Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey while she held the position, explaining why she had voted in favour of the walkout. 

In the letter, she called for more investment in the NHS to provide the staffing the service needs, with many having left the NHS or being unable to work their normal hours due to the effects of long Covid, contracted when staff were on the frontline in battling the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Stowmarket Mercury: Xylina Hogan has written to MPs calling for more investment in the NHSXylina Hogan has written to MPs calling for more investment in the NHS (Image: Xylina Hogan)

She said teams were working with "unsafe numbers, not just across Suffolk, but across the entire NHS across the country", while the ambulance service was in a similar situation which was having a "knock-on effect" across healthcare. 

She added the NHS had been under pressure before the Covid-19 virus struck, but the pandemic had been the "straw that broke the camel’s back" with many finding it too expensive to get a healthcare degree and then finding they are not getting the pay at the end of it. 

Miss Hogan said: “You can get paid the same working in Tesco or Lidl as a nurse. 

“Nurses are tired of it. Tired of the system and they are unable to provide the care that they wanted to provide when they took up the job. 

“It is sad and I think more investment needs to be put into staff if we are going to tackle the crisis and that includes pay."

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the union representing the profession, started the ballot over pay a month ago and the voting closed earlier this week, with some 300,000 nurses being asked if they were willing to take part in industrial action. 

Miss Hogan, who lives in Felixstowe, called for a pay rise for nurses "in line with inflation". 

She added: “It just feels unfair, especially if you feel like you are not helping and you are not getting paid and it is stressful.”

The government has offered a 3% wage rise. However, the RCN has called for an increase which exceeds inflation by 5%.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We value the hard work of NHS nurses and are working hard to support them – including by giving over 1 million NHS workers, including nurses, a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year, as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body.

“NHS staff also received a 3% pay rise last year, increasing nurses’ pay by £1,000 on average despite a public sector pay freeze.

“Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.”