A demonstration of support for NHS workers will take place this Saturday outside the New QEII hospital in Welwyn Garden City.
The gathering, organised by The Welwyn Garden City & Hatfield Trades Council, will give thanks to nurses and doctors who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to treat and care for patients.
The event will start at 12pm with attendees socially distancing along Howlands, marshals will be in attendance and will ask everyone to stand in three metre intervals on the pavement along the length of the road opposite the hospital.
A spokesman for the trade council said: "The disgraceful treatment of NHS workers by the Government after the year they've had has left many wanting to show the workers how valued they are by the local community.
"These heroes deserve a proper pay rise for the magnificent work they have done to keep us safe and we feel it is important they know the general public don't agree with how they are being treated."
Back in March Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced plans to give some NHS staff in England a one per cent pay rise.
At the time he said he was 'massively grateful' for the NHS staff but defended the one per cent rise by saying it is ''as much as we can give'.
The Royal College of Nursing responded to the pay proposals, highlighting the fact that it would mean only £3.50 more per week in take-home pay for experienced nurses.
The strain that has been put on the hospitals in our area is reflected in the data, which shows an enormous rise in the number of patients who have had to wait for more than a year for treatment.
In February 2020 there were 24 people who had waited more than 52 weeks for treatment, in February 2021 that figure was over 100 times larger at 2,498.
The same story can be seen across almost every hospital in the country, nationally in February 2020 there were only 1,613 people who had waited for a year, a year later that figure grew to 387,885 - 240 times more.
The number of people now in beds in Lister hospital with COVID-19 is down to single figures at five, but in January that figure was as high as 222 - which further highlights the stress the NHS was under.
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