It is not often that nursing staff working on the front line in our hospitals, GP surgeries and care homes feel the need to get involved in politics. We get on with doing the job we were trained to do. Many of us ­cannot imagine doing anything else.

But we now find ourselves in a situation that can no longer be tolerated.

Since 2010, pay freezes and the one per cent cap on public sector pay increases have left NHS nursing staff at least £3,000 worse off as salaries fall by 14 per cent in real terms. Their families are paying the price. Some are forced to take on second jobs and even use food banks.

At the same time, nurses and healthcare assistants across the south west are having to cope with health services that have never been so busy, with staff spread thinly due to 40,000 unfilled nursing jobs across England.

A recent survey of Royal College of Nursing of members showed that nine in 10 would support industrial action if the pay cap is not scrapped.

Many nurses are now getting involved in a summer of protest to give the Prime Minister a final chance to remove the cap before a formal legal ballot on action later in the year.

You may well see us as we undertake this activity and we hope you will support our aims.

Without nursing staff, the NHS would not survive. Without our members going that extra mile every day, working beyond their shifts and missing meal breaks, patients would not get the care they need and deserve.

Please support our campaign and call for the Government to #scrapthecap so we can continue to be there for the patients who need us now and in the future.

Vicky Brotherton

and Lors Alford

RCN South West

Council members