Hundreds of thousands of NHS staff walk out in pay strike

NHS workers at Leeds General Infirmary who have taken part in today's four hour strike have said industrial action is a last resort.

Edward Barr from Unite, Matthew Barker who is a porter, Fiona Powell, an NHS worker and midwives Liz Furness and Anita Marshall, have been speaking to ITV Yorkshire about why they chose to strike.

Watch: Midwives join other NHS workers in strike action

NHS staff went on strike in England and Northern Ireland today and said they will do so again next month if the government doesn't agree to a recommended one percent pay rise.

With earnings still lagging behind inflation, ITV News is looking at the issue of pay this week,

In our first report ITV News Economics Editor, Richard Edgar, examines the claims about public sector versus private sector pay rises - highlighted by today's strike

An NHS worker has told ITV News "everything is a struggle" as she explained her reasons for joining widespread strike action today.

Speaking to Damon Green, Occupational Therapist and young mum Ella Huntley - whose husband also works for the service - said her household income had fallen by around £7,000 in recent years.

Unions have called on the government to "show some respect" to staff, who are calling for a 1% pay rise - which ministers say the country cannot afford.

The NHS strikes in Northern Ireland have seen more than 4,000 health workers take to the streets in protest against "a stark fifth year of pay freeze."

Nurses, healthcare assistants, ambulance staff, porters, administration workers and cleaners have been taking part in the four hour strike which started at 11am.

Patricia McKeown regional secretary of Unison, which has 25,000 members in Northern Ireland, said: "Our people are facing a stark fifth year of pay freeze and that is having a very adverse impact, particularly on the lowest paid of health workers.

"We have seen an enormous rise in the number of our members having to turn to the benefit system in order to make ends meet."

David Cameron defended the Government's health spending record today as he paid an official visit to Portsmouth during the NHS strikes.

He said: "We spent more on the NHS in this parliament, £12.7 billion more.

"When Labour was proposing to cut it, we protected the NHS budget and I have said we will do exactly the same thing again, protecting the NHS budget in the next parliament."

Strikers in Romford took part in the NHS strike today, despite being pelted with rain.

Ambulance staff in the Essex town gathered outside the local ambulance station for the four hour strike over the Government's rejection of a 1% pay rise for NHS staff.

Medical staff were "voting with their feet" today as they took part in a four hour strike about pay.

Janet Maiden, a nurse who joined the picket line at University College Hospital London, said: "'We deserve decent pay. It's well documented care is better by a well motivated workforce."

She told ITV News: "People are seriously voting with their feet, people are talking about leaving nursing."

ITV News' Rebecca Barry reports:

NHS workers in Northern Ireland have started four hours of strike action against the Government's decision not to give them a recommended 1% pay rise.

Workers joined the picket line at 11am and are following in the footsteps of NHS staff in England who held a similar walkout between 7am and 11am today.

A four hour strike of NHS workers, including midwives, nurses, paramedics, ambulance staff, and hospital porters has come to an end.

Starting at 7am hundreds of thousands of health workers in England staged their first strike over pay in more than 30 years, an industrial action that is also being copied in Northern Ireland later today.

General secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey, said the high turnout of NHS staff on the picket line showed workers were "not prepared to be treated as second-class citizens any more."

A poll for the union Unite shows the public supports health workers in their campaign for an above-inflation pay rise.

A survey of more than 1,000 people showed that almost two thirds thought a continued below-inflation one per cent pay cap was unfair.

Three out of five of those questioned said they believed industrial action being taken by NHS workers was justified.

According to Frances O'Grady, of the Trades Union Congress, this is the first time there has been a national strike over pay in the NHS since 1982.