NHS staff protest over job cuts

Health workers have been holding marches and rallies to protest about cuts to NHS jobs and services, and below-inflation pay increases - according to the BBC.

Demonstrations took place in a number of towns and cities, including London, Manchester, Preston, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield and Belfast.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber - who spoke in Sheffield - said there was "real concern" about NHS policies. "Obviously there are immediate pressures with cuts and jobs disappearing, wards closing in too many trusts," he said.

"People not able to find jobs when they've completed their training - nurses, physiotherapists. So all of those kinds of problems."

The events were co-ordinated by NHS Together, an alliance of unions and NHS staff organisations.

Dr Peter Carter, of the Royal College of Nursing, said nurses were "angry and upset" over a number of issues.

He told BBC News 24: "Over the last year or so nurses have seen jobs frozen, redundancies, services closed, wards closed, student nurses not being able to get jobs on finishing their training, which is a pretty depressing state of affairs.

"And then you've had on Thursday the announcement by the government that they were not going to fully implement the recommendations of the pay review body that nurses should get 2.5%.

"And so it's a combination of both of these things have led to an extremely frustrated nursing workforce."