A London nurse has urged lawmakers to fund discounted train travel for NHS workers, in response to the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Alicia Arias, an experienced cardiac intensive care unit nurse at Great Ormand Street Hospital Trust, told Nursing Times she spends more than £200 a month on train fares just to get to work.
“We need to stop relying on us being in love with what we do”
Alicia Arias
Ms Arias, like many other people who work in London, lives outside of the capital due to the difficulties in finding appropriate housing there.
A Woking resident, Ms Arias recently saw the cost of a single ticket to London increase to £15.
When working night shifts, she cannot use a discounted day return ticket due to the 4am cutoff and instead has to purchase two single tickets at additional cost.
Her frustration with the amount of money she spends getting to and from work led her to start a UK Parliament petition urging politicians to consider funding the creation of an NHS railcard, to give a universal train ticket discount for all workers in the health service.
“If you want to have children, if you want space, you need to leave London, and to leave London, you need to commute – and then you have to pay for the commute,” she said.
“We cannot afford it. The pay rises and the other offers we’ve had were basically rubbish…
“The train fares are crazy.”
On top of other cost of living increases, Ms Arias said the expenses associated with commuting set against substandard pay increases for nurses had contributed to “many” colleagues of hers leaving the job.
Currently, railcards offering a 33% discount on all train fares are available for people who are aged 16-30 or over 60, disabled, or have served in the armed forces.
A Network Railcard, which covers London and the South East of England, also offers the same for people of all ages, but does not provide a discount for most train journeys before 10am.
Ms Arias said a railcard for all NHS workers would help improve retention in the health service and ease a significant financial burden for the workforce.
“I want to improve retention, and I want to improve wellbeing, because I think it’s happening to everyone… but not only nurses, everyone in the NHS,” she said.
“We don’t feel valued, we don’t feel seen. The turnover in my ward is crazy. We have nurses leaving, nurses coming all the time, and people don’t stay.”
Ms Arias warned that if a measure like this isn’t taken, more nursing staff would leave, worsening ongoing NHS workforce shortages.
She added: “We are so in love with what we do. I’m in love with what I do. I don’t think I would stop being a nurse, even if I had to spend less money somewhere else.
“But we need to stop relying on us being in love with what we do, because we also have a life, and we cannot afford that life…
“I’m talking for my profession, but [also] for the cleaner, the pharmacist, for the person in the lab, for the person in the kitchen, for anyone that works in my hospital and is having trouble to get to work.”
Ms Arias’ petition to UK Parliament can be found here. Petitions hosted on that website receive a mandatory response from the government if they hit 10,000 signatures, and trigger a debate in the commons at 100,000.
