Campaigners took to the high street over the weekend calling for a pay rise for NHS staff.

People passing through Carlisle on Saturday, April 8, took leaflets and signed a petition produced by the Carlisle Socialist Party calling for all vacancies in the NHS and social care to be filled, a pay rise for junior doctors and other health staff, and the renationalisation of privatised health services.

Campaigner Grahame Higginson said: “Many people told us of their horrific experiences, suffering in agony on long waiting lists for hospital treatment or being forced to pay for private treatment.

“Our NHS is being deliberately pushed towards collapse to pave the way for more privatisation and profiteering.”

A spokesperson from the Carlisle Socialist Party said: “A recent survey shows that public satisfaction with the NHS has collapsed under the Tories’ austerity funding cuts from 70 per cent in 2010 to just 29 per cent today.

“But a big majority of 74 per cent still share the founding principles of universal health care for free at the point of use.

“The British Medical Association, whose members in Cumberland will be on strike all next week, sums it up.”

A spokesperson on behalf of the British Medical Association members striking in North Cumbria said: “The NHS was one of the most respected health services in the world.

"But these damning findings show how years of underfunding and government neglect have reduced it to a mere shadow of what it could and should be.”