Wiggin Lane Draft 2

WIGGIN LANE
DRAFT 1
by Julie Wilkinson
c 2023
Email: Julie.wilkinson3@btinternet.com
Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 1

CHARACTERS INCLUDE:
RCN:
MARY FAY (MARY F), 39, GRADE 6 NURSE, LOCAL
ORGANISER – NOT YET FORMALLY RCN STEWARD
HER COLLEAGUE MARY SALOME (MAZZA), 27, GRADE 5

NURSE, SINGLE PARENT OF KARA AND GIRLFRIEND OF
SEAN.
MARY ROSE (MARY R), 57, ADVANCED NURSE

PRACTITIONER, FRIEND OF MARY A. (PARTNER TO
LINDSAY, SCOTTISH, PART-TIME LECTURER IN SOCIAL
WORK, DECEASED).
MARCUS WILLIAMS, 23, STUDENT NURSE, STEP-BROTHER

TO MAZZA (SAME DAD), UNCLE TO KARA.
UNISON
SEAN RAFFERTY, 31, EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN IN
NORTH WEST AMBULANCE SERVICE, BOYFRIEND OF
MAZZA
FIONA, HIS TEAM-MATE, GRADUATE PARAMEDIC WITH

NWAS. 29.
OTHERS
MRS IRENE FAZACKERLY, PATIENT, HEART CONDITION.
SINEAD, RCN ORGANISER, THIRTY-ISH, DEGREE IN

ANTHROPOLOGY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS FROM
QUEENS, BELFAST.

JUNIOR HEALTH MINISTER, UNCONSCIOUS, HAVING BEEN
THROWN FROM HER HORSE WHILST EVENTING ON THE
DUCHY OF LANCASTER ESTATES IN THE FOREST OF
BOWLAND.
HEALTH MINISTER’S SPECIAL ADVISOR (SPAD), OLIVIA

NOBLE, LATE TWENTIES. EX OF A MAJOR CITY OF LONDON
ACCOUNTING CONSULTANCY.
TRUST’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE JANET LESSER, 59 (CHIEF

EXEC). EXTREMELY WELL GROOMED AND ATTRACTIVE.
SCARF-WEARING. WEARS SPARKLY TRAINERS TO WORK
SINCE A RECENT HIP-REPLACEMENT.
CHARGE NURSE WILKINSON, UROLOGY MATRON.

OPPOSED TO STRIKE ACTION.
MARY R’S MANAGER.
CHIEF NURSE
IMOGEN PRYKE, RESEARCHER AND DOMINIC COOPER,

COUNSELLOR OF ‘INTERVENE INTERNATIONAL
CONSULTANCY’ ON CONTRACT TO NHS ENGLAND.
DYING PATIENT
RELATIVE OF DYING PATIENT
CHORUS: COMPRISING NURSES, HEALTH CARE

ASSISTANTS, PATIENTS, CHILDREN.
SAXOPHONIST

SCENE 1: RCN PICKET LINE. 8.15am.
CHORUS OF PICKETS, INCLUDING MARY FAY, MARY ROSE,

MAZZA (MARY SALOME) AND MARCUS.
CHORUS: Somewhere in Lancashire.
Busy road normally…
Fields across the way, then a housing estate…
We’re all bunched up on the pavement. In us uniforms.
It’s a chilly morning in February. Twenty twenty-three.
Reet cowd.
Not that bad… Tha’s allus bin nesh.
[LOUD] What do we want? …
MARY F: There was people there I knew. Mary, and Mary, o’ course. Friends.
Close colleagues. Quite a lot I’d only seen in passing, some faces
new to me.
MAZZA: I knew this Mary, my namesake, and our kid.
MARCUS: My step-sister.
MARY R: I knew Marcus because he had recently completed a placement with

my team.

MARCUS: An’ believe me, you’re on her team, you do what Mary says.
MAZZA: Hey! Drop the attitude! Mary’s an advanced nurse practitioner.
MARY R: He’s only teasing. Truth be told, we need more students like
Marcus…
MARCUS: Hear that? You need more like me…
CHORUS: Come on, let’s give it some welly! What do we want?
MAZZA: We all knew what we wanted…
CHORUS: [ALL] Safe staffing!
When do we want it?
[ALL] Now!
MARY R: At that point we were pretty much of one mind.
CHORUS: Nurses on strike and out on picket lines all over England….
MARY F: Wherever we got the ballot result to take strike action… I can tell you
all about that…
MARY R: Well, we’d been agonising for months…
MAZZA: …and the Tories weren’t up for negotiating.
CHORUS: What do we want?
[ALL] Safe staffing!

When do we want it?
[A SUPPORTER DRIVES PAST HONKING THEIR HORN.

PICKETERS WHOOP AND CHEER!]
MARY R: It’s not as if it was an easy decision.
MARY F: Every winter is bad, but this is the worst ever…

[TO MARY R] You alright, Mary?
MARY R NODS.
CHORUS: Some went out in January.
Kettering.
London.
Liverpool.
But our trust was out in the second action – a lot more Hospitals and
Trusts an’ centres...
PHONE ALARM
MAZZA: Alarm goes off as usual, as for mi shift; get my daughter up and ready
for Grandma - please Kara, no mitherin’ about yer webs!
KARA: [HER TRAINERS ARE TOO TIGHT]. Ow ow ow ow, Mam!
CHORUS: Mam mam mum mummy mam!

MAZZA: Sanie made and packed; uniform off the maiden, [SNIFFS
UNIFORM] bit damp…
MARY R: An’ then not to go straight to the ward as usual but to stand out here…
MARCUS: …leaning on the wall under the sign for all the Departments…
MAZZA: You’ll get moss stains on yer anorak.
MARCUS: What, where?
MAZZA: Got yer!
CHORUS: …with us placards and leaflets an’ stickers an’ flasks…
An’ picket supervisor high vis vests…
MARY R: Not me at all, really.
MARY F: But we knew what was needed and we had to do something.

Definitely.
[ALL] Fair pay!
When do we want it?
[ALL] Now!
MARY F: Mary.
MARY R: Mary.

MAZZA: Mary.
MARCUS: An’ Marcus.
CHORUS: There must be forty or so nurses…
An’ health care assistants…
…round this gate.
Further down the lane there’s a whole lot more…
A lot of colleagues ‘ave said to me… specially health care assistants

an’ housekeeping…
Yes, I’ve had to go to a food bank.
Yeah, it’s the cost of living.
[PASSING HORNS HONK. CHORUS WHOOP AND CHEER.]
But it’s not very nice to think you’re in a profession, a caring

profession, where you’ve done years to get your degree and then
you’re struggling.
MARY F: I know everybody can have times, like, after Christmas, but it seems
like an ongoing issue for some people and it’s not right, they
shouldn’t be struggling.
CHORUS: I’m strugglin’ and I don’t mind saying it.
You’re still paying off your student loan, aren’t you?

What do we want?
[ALL] Fair pay!
When do we want it?
I trained when it was still the bursary.
MARCUS: Nice for some!
CHORUS: I’m in paediatrics. I started in nursery nursing and my friend was

nursing and said it was a great job. It was, then. Don’t get me wrong,
the care the kids get is amazing…
You can’t do your job properly any more.
You’ve got this constant anxiety, because if it ever happens you’re

fully staffed you know you’ll have staff moved to another area…
One you don’t know so well.
Back then it was much more simple. You didn’t leave with debt.
You didn’t have to rely on other people funding you.
MARCUS: I sort of knew what I was letting myself in for, after our Mazza did
her nursing degree…

MARCUS: But nothin’ she said put me off. I took to it from my first day, I love
the job. But honestly, I’d be better off financially… I dunno, fixing
cars. Or any sort of machinery. Never been interested.
CHORUS: [ALL] Gets to the point where you just can’t afford to do the job.
MAZZA: Single parents like me.
CHORUS: I ‘ave to tell mine, no you can’t ‘ave this, you can’t ‘ave that…
Newly qualifieds on grade 5, they arrive and within six weeks, they’re
going, they’re leaving.
They’re the ones not here.
Not only are they working the hours but they’re doing extra, they’re
doing night shifts, they’re doing the agency pick up.
[ALL] And they’re burned out….
…especially with the pandemic.
Though it started long before that.
There’s that many people going off because it’s too much. Doing too
much. Working late, not finishing on time.
It's that…
[ALL] …working to the point of incredible exhaustion.
Totes jiggered, cos’, you know, you’re picking up other people’s

work.

When do we want it?
[ALL] Now!
CHARGE NURSE WILKINSON APPROACHES THE LINE.
MAZZA: So, you’re going in today, are you?
CHORUS: She’s our Charge Nurse.
THE PICKET LINE PARTS TO LET CHARGE NURSE

THROUGH.
MARY F: Nobody’s gonna stop you, Mrs Wilkinson. But could you take a
minute to chat?
CHARGE NURSE: You shouldn’t be blocking the pavement. I’ve got patients depending
on me. An’ so ‘ave you.
MARY F: If you want to think again at any point…

CHARGE NURSE GOES THROUGH.
We’ll always welcome your support.
CHARGE NURSE: I’ll report you for intimidation! I know who you are.
CHORUS: I’ve had to say to her, again and again. I just don’t think we’re
staffed properly.
…the other day I was the only nurse on shift on my ward. That’s not
safe…
…staffing levels for the care of these patients are not right.

We can’t do it at all without agency nurses.
[PASSING DRIVER HONKS HORN. CHEERS.]
That’s the second police car we’ve had going past here this
morning…
MARY F: That one earlier… did you see what he did? He draws up and he rolls
down his window, and I’m the picket supervisor, yes, but I’ve never
done it before in my life and I’m thinking, eh up, what’s he going to
say to me now? Move on move on, tone it down, clear this pavement,
how many of you is there anyway? ‘sposed to be no more than six.
But that’s not what he says. He says, I’ve brought you some barm
joes, would you like em?
[PASSING TRUCK DRIVER HONKS HORN. PICKETS CHEER]
CHORUS: [TWO NURSES] Watch you don’t get run over – we’re Orthopaedics,
so you know. Where to come.
I’m on ICU. There’s two of my colleagues in favour but they’re

covering today and then tomorrow I’ll go in, and they’ll come out
here…
All this standing round. Not used to it, I’m always on the move -
don’t really know what to do with myself.
MARY R: I’m thinking about my patients.
CHORUS: I’m thinking about the patients I can’t look after properly.
[ONE PICKETER OFFERS TEA TO ANOTHER]

No, ta - I daren’t drink any more tea. Where are people going if…
you know? I’ve been here three hours already.
A PROCESSION OF PRESS, RCN MINDERS AND OFFICIALS

BUNCHED AROUND PAT CULLEN ARRIVES; MOVES
THROUGH THE PICKET LINE.
CHORUS: [FAST, FURIOUS, OVERLAPPING] Pat! PAT!
There she is….
Who is it?
It's the General Secretary.
Where, I can’t see, all’s I can see is cameras and sound booms….
She’s got white hair and a red suit…
I think I saw a flash of red then…
It's like Katniss Everdene in her chariot with her gown all on fire..
‘cept we can’t see her.
No, she’s talking to members. Look, they’re taking a selfie with

her…
I’m gonna go for a selfie with her…. Let me through!
We’ll be sorted now. She sorted out Northern Ireland. Well not
Northern Ireland, but nurses’ dispute there. Well, they got a better

offer any’ow.
I heard she ‘ad to bring their parliament back to do it…
She’s stopped now, she’s talking to press…
I’m sure I know that bloke off the telly…
Who, the interviewer? Yeah, you do.
Which one? I still can’t see….
Don’t crowd her, we got to be dignified. We’re not t’miners.
My Dad was a miner!

‘til the pits shut, any road…
Offer Pat a barm joe.
A flapjack.
A cuppa.
A mate and prater pie.
They’re so damn tall these journalists!
Maybe there’s a minimum height requirement… you know, like

policemen.
What to hold a camera?
He's saying, ‘…this is a big change for the RCN’.

It’s a massive shift for the RCN, mate. First time we’ve ever done
anything like this!
Let’s give Pat some support…. What do we want?
[ALL] Everybody’s had enough.
What do we want?
[ALL] Fair pay!
When do we want it?
THE PICKET LINE MELTS AWAY.
MAZZA: We thought we’d see things change fast. In like, days. I did.
MARY R: Even with colleagues who didn’t feel they could strike, next day
they’d come up and say, quietly to me, they were sympathetic.
MARY F: My feeling was, this dispute was going to be a long haul. Months.
Maybe longer….
And whether we’d have the same friends at the end of it, that we had
at the beginning… I just didn’t know.
MARCUS: [TO MAZZA] By the way. This is not an anorak.
MAZZA GIVES HIM A PLAYFUL SHOVE.

SCENE 2 LUCKY DIP
A SAXAPHONE PLAYS. MOODILY. A FEW PHRASES. IF

POSSIBLE (RIGHTS?) BLUESY VERSION OF EURYTHMICS
‘SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS’.
MAZZA, KARA AND SEAN.

MAZZA IS UNPACKING A ‘LUCKY DIP’ BOX FROM THE
SUPERMARKET.
MAZZA: [TO AUDIENCE] I know it was that same week when Sean first
asked me to marry him, because I was bare skint.
SEAN: Memories are made of this… [HE PUTS HIS ARMS ROUND HER]
MAZZA: Gerroff… What the heck is in here…?
SEAN: [LOOKING] Random selection of root vegetables an’ a tin of own

brand rice pudding.
MAZZA: Mam picked up the box for one fifty at t’ supermarket. They call it
lucky dip.
[TO AUDIENCE] Kara was skrikin’, wanting her tea.
KARA SKRIKES, HUNGRY.
MAZZA: So I give her an onion to play with.

[MAZZA WIPES AN UNPEELED ONION ON HER SLEEVE AND
GIVES IT TO KARA]
[LOOKING IN THE BOX]. Things I’d no idea what they were.
[SHOWS SEAN A LONG KOHL RHABI] I mean, what even is this?

SEAN: Mazza, I’m serious though, I want to talk.
MAZZA: ?
SEAN: I think it’s Kohl Rhabi….
MAZZA: Get you!
SEAN: Well, it’s that sort of sophisticated knowledge you want in a husband.
MAZZA: [BEAT]
What you supposed to do with it?
SEAN: …
MAZZA: See you don’t know everything. Least there’s a packet o’ streaky.
It’ll have to be hot pot. Can you do hot pot in the microwave?
SEAN: I know how I feel about you, and I know how I feel about Kara. You
know too.
MAZZA: Sean…
SEAN: How long are we going to go on putting our lives on hold?
MAZZA: Can you jus’ be practical for a minute? I can’t get to the end of the
month without we’re clempt. I ‘ave to shower at work, cos of the gas
bill. She needs new shoes. I can’t send her to nursery in slippers.
And where would we live?
SEAN: We’re both working…

MAZZA: I’m rent free here, Sean, but when my Mam retires, she can’t do that
any more… An’ how are we going to afford anything that needs any
kind of a deposit?
SEAN: I’m saving up…
MAZZA: Yeah and you’re on strike an’ all… We both are.
SEAN: I’ll get promoted.
MAZZA: What, you’ve found a training place?
SEAN: Not yet.
MAZZA: Aww. [PUTS HER ARMS ROUND HIM]. I’d promote you, love, I
would. If I was having a heart attack by the freezers in Iceland, ‘look
at them prices…eurghh!’, it’s you I’d want shocking me back to life.
Every time…
SEAN: She believes in me. She won’t admit it, but…

[MAZZA BREAKS AWAY]
MAZZA: But the cost of a wedding, even.

I always thought I’d do it properly.
SEAN: You look good in anything. You look good in your cut offs….
MAZZA: I’m not getting married in shorts. With mi arse ‘anging out!
…
Where’s Kara?
SEAN: There’s always gonna be something.

MAZZA: Kara! What you doing?
[BEAT]
Sean.
SEAN: What?
MAZZA: Sean.
SEAN: I said, what?
MAZZA: She’s ate the onion.
SEAN: She’s what?
MAZZA: She’s ate the onion. Raw.
SEAN: You didn’t give her a knife?
MAZZA: She might’ve cut herself, what d’you tek me for? Like I can’t look
after my own kid?
SEAN: They eat raw onions in Spain.
MAZZA: Not with the skins on. [TO KARA] Spit it out, pet. Come on.
SEAN: Bit of vitamin C. Won’t do her any harm. Where’s your sense of
humour? Yummy yummy, in your tummy, Kara…
MAZZA: Don’t tell anyone.

Nobody.
I don’t want you telling anybody about this. Not on your team. Not
your mates. And definitely not your mother.

SEAN: You’re ashamed she ate an onion?
MAZZA: I don’t wanna talk about it…
SEAN: Oh, come on, Mazza…
MAZZA: Get lost.

I mean it. Go on. Bugger off.
KARA: Bugger off…
MAZZA: I’m not feeding you an’ all.
SEAN: …
MAZZA: No.
SEAN: …
MAZZA: I’ll see you later.
SEAN: After my picketing.
MAZZA: After you’ve got a pay rise, mate.

[SEAN GOES].
After we both have.
SAXAPHONE: ALARMING BLAST.
SCENE 3 GTVO

STAFF KITCHEN SHARED BY THREE WARDS.
MARY F IS QUIETLY MAKING HERSELF A TEA IN ONE

CORNER.
MARY F: Let’s face it, I never thought I’d be striking.
TWO NURSES COME INTO THE KITCHEN FOR A BREW.

NURSE 1 IS 15-20 YEARS OLDER THAN NURSE 2.
NURSE 1: Sister Wilkinson’s on at me again.
NURSE 2: Charge nurse?
NURSE 1: She insists on ‘Matron’. Like some Carry-On film.
NURSE 2: What’s a Carry-On film?
NURSE 1: ‘Oooh, Matron…’? Barbara Windsor losing her bra? Snogging in

the Sluice?
…
I am so glad you never heard of Carry-On films.
NURSE 2: Tea?
NURSE 1: Ta. I wouldn’t mind, Sister Wilkinson’s not even my manager, she’s
from Urology.
NURSE 2: So why is she calling you in?
NURSE 1: She wants to know how I’m voting. In’t ballot.

NURSE 2 What business is it of hers?
Sounds like she’s just…
TOGETHER: …taking the piss!
NURSE 1: Yeah, yeah. I thought you said you never saw a Carry-On film?
NURSE 2: You should have a word with Mary. [SIGNALS]. Over there.
NURSE 1 SHAKES HER HEAD.
MARY F: [TO AUDIENCE]. And then I never thought I would be in a situation

where I would send that reply to an email from the RCN.
THREE RCN ORGANISERS POP UP OUT OF NOWHERE.
RCN A: Dear Mary.
RCN B: Dear Mary.
RCN C: Dear Mary.
MARY F: So I was approached by them. On a Friday afternoon.
RCN A: Congratulations on volunteering for the position of picket organiser.
MARY F: I volunteered?
RCN B: You will be representing RCN members at your NHS hospital trust.
MARY F: What, on my own?

RCN C: You have a key part to play in our campaign to persuade members to
return their ballot papers by the deadline.
MARY F: Hang on a minute. Why me?
RCN A: Thank-you for replying to our email invitation.
MARY F: I can’t be the only one who replied? From the whole Trust?
RCN B: Please see our website for FAQs about how to help members to get
involved.
RCN C: Please indicate below how many posters stroke leaflets you would like
to distribute to RCN members at your Hospital Trust stroke Clinical
Treatment Centre?
MARY F: I am. I’m the only one who replied.
RCN B: Your first task will be to recruit other representatives in your Hospital
Trust stroke Clinical Treatment Centre.
MARY F: I was like, Oh my Lord, what have I got myself into? Because I had
visions at one stage, the only people on the picket line was going to be
me.
And I have to say, when it came to it I was there both days, all day
long.
RCN A,B &C: And we hope you have a lovely weekend.
MARY F: So I did walk round and talk to all my colleagues, and I said…
[TO NURSE 1]
Have you sent your ballot form back?

NURSE 3 ARRIVES.
NURSE 1: ...
NURSE 2: I’m not sure I got a ballot paper…
NURSE 3: When I joined the RCN there was a no-strike policy.
NURSE 2 LEAVES. NURSE 4 ARRIVES.
MARY F: That was changed a while back, voted for, at conference.
NURSE 3: [DOUBTFUL] Right…
NURSE 4: I don’t think I can vote, ‘cos I’m on a tier 2 visa.
NURSE 3 LEAVES.
MARY F: You can vote. Definitely.
NURSE 4: I have to work so many days and earn so much money… For my
sponsorship to be valid.
MARY F: I’ll check that. With RCN.
MAZZA COMES IN.
MAZZA: What’s this, a meeting?
NURSE 4: I don’t want my name being mentioned.

MARY F: You still have the right to withdraw your labour.
NURSE 2 STICKS HER HEAD ROUND THE DOOR.
NURSE 2: [TO NURSE 1] Are you coming?
NURSE 1: One minute.

I was told if I refuse to work, management can take disciplinary
action against me. Apparently, that can affect my registration.
NURSE 2: Meaning she can’t work. Anywhere.
MAZZA: Who told you that?
NURSE 1: Matron from Urology.
NURSE 2: She’s not even our line manager…
MARY F: Forward me the email, will you?
NURSE 1: Oh, it’s not in an email, she had me in her office.
MARY F: On your own?
NURSE 2: She’s asking us all to go in. One by one. [TO NURSE 1]

Handover…. [SHE LEAVES]
MAZZA: We can’t have that.
MARY F: I’ll get the RCN onto it.
SINEAD FROM RCN OFFICES SPEAKS ON THE PHONE.

SINEAD: The Trust has agreed that holding individual meetings with members
is not conducive to good will. Any more of that, just let me know.
MARY F: How did you manage that?
SINEAD: I reminded the Trust that we would be supporting any members who
had cause to complain of harassment.
NURSE 4: [LEAVING] I don’t think it will be that easy with the Home Office.
MARY F: Nobody is going to know how you vote. It’s a secret ballot.
MAZZA: There’s no point us just moaning to each other on a break; if you want
your voice to be heard you need to send that ballot paper back.
MARY F: Thanks, Mazza.
NURSE 1: I’d just feel so guilty. Walking out. When my patients need me.
MARY F: One step at a time. If you vote, that’s a signal to the Government to
start talking. Shows how we’re feeling. And if that works, we might
not have to strike at all.
CRASH ALARM SOUNDS. NURSES RUN.
SCENE 4 COUNTING
LATER
MARY AND MARCUS ARE ON THE WARD. MARCUS IS
ABOUT TO TAKE A PATIENT’S PULSE. MARY IS ACTING AS
HIS PRACTICE ASSESSOR, WATCHING THE PROCESS.

MARCUS: Hi, Mrs Fazackerly, I’m just going to take your pulse if that’s ok?
[HE TAKES THE PATIENT’S HAND].
MARY F: Patient ID, Marcus….
MARCUS: Oh, sorry…. [HE CHECKS THE PATIENT’S WRIST BAND]
MARY F: [TO AUDIENCE] So there’s three levels of counting in an industrial

action ballot. Under the Tory legislation.
MARCUS CHECKS FOR RADIAL PULSE WITH INDEX AND

MIDDLE FINGERS. CHECKS HIS WATCH.
A recognised trade union has to have a majority of members vote in

favour of strike action or action short of a strike. And they have to
have a majority of those who are eligible to vote, voting. And for us
in health services, we have to have at least forty per cent vote in
favour.
PATIENT: They don’t do that for’t Prime Minister.
MARY F: I think the idea was that it would make it much harder for any group
of workers to go on strike.
PATIENT: I bet it was.
MARCUS: Just relax, Mrs Fazackerly… [HER PULSE RATE IS INCREASING]
PATIENT: Enough to make anybody’s blood pressure go through ‘t roof.
MARY F: It does have the unintended effect of making any vote for strike action
that passes those hurdles, much more powerful.

How are you doing?
MARCUS: [RECORDING THE PULSE ON CHART]. A hundred and ten….
PATIENT: Is that all right?
MARCUS: There’s definitely a beating heart in there, Mrs Fazackerly.
PATIENT: Oooh, call me Irene.
MARY’S BEEPER SOUNDS.
MARY F: BP please, Marcus. We’ve got incoming… [SHE TURNS TO GO]
PATIENT: Isn’t he lovely? Where do you come from, sweetheart?
MARCUS AND MARY F EXCHANGE A LOOK.
MARY F: D’you want me to… [say something]?

MARCUS SHAKES HIS HEAD.
MARCUS: [TO PATIENT] I’m a man of mystery.
PATIENT: Like that detective off the telly…? What’s is name? Goes rogue.
Always dangling off of fire escapes. Wears a tie. [PAIN] Oooh…
MARCUS: Hurting?
PATIENT: You could say.
MARCUS: Let’s see what we can do about that…

MARY F: [QUIETLY TO HIM] Patient’s written up for pain relief – have a
word with Mazza.
Oh, and Marcus. Well-handled.
[HE GOES]
And then when we got the ballot result, which I really wasn’t sure we
would, turned out that was only the start. Trying to organise an actual
picket line….
NURSES/HCAS CRISS-CROSS THE WARD.
NURSE 5: [CARRYING A CARDBOARD SICK BOWL] I’m derogated…
NURSE 6: [PAPERWORK] I thought I was derogated but now I’m not.
HCA: [A PATIENT’S SLIPPERS] I’m in Unison.
CLEANER: [MOP AND BUCKET] Agency.
NURSE 7: [BAG OF BLOOD] To be honest, I don’t know whether I’m coming

or going.
MARY F: I mean I can ask for colleagues’ support. I can say, the union’s
helped you in the past, we’ve supported you over whatever it was, if
there’s been some issue. I can say, I think we’ve got to the stage
where nothing else is going to make a difference. But what makes
people change their minds? That’s a big question.
NURSES LEAVE.
MARCUS RETURNS WITH MAZZA TO IRENE FAZAKERLY.

MAZZA CHECKS PATIENT’S WRIST BAND. OFFERS WATER
AND PILLS.

MAZZA: This should help, Irene.
PATIENT: I don’t know if I can come for my next treatment. I’ve never crossed
a picket line in my life.
MARY F: No no no no, please do come in.
A PATIENT’S BUZZER SOUNDS.
[TO MARCUS] Bed 4, Marcus. Quick as you like.
MARCUS: Me?
MARY F: Please.
HE GOES.
MARY F: But we’d never want someone not to cross a picket line to go and get
treatment. We’re nurses. That’s not the type of thing that we would
do.
PATIENT: [TO MAZZA] Don’t you think he’s like that detective off the telly?
MAZZA: I don’t mean to be rude, but honestly? It’s hard to think of anybody
he’s less like.
SCENE 5 DAY OFF.
MARY ROSE IN HER FLAT WITH MARY FAY.
MARY R AND MARY F COLLECT LINDSAY’S CLOTHES OUT

OF WARDROBES AND CUPBOARDS. THEY SORT AND PACK
THEM INTO BLACK PLASTIC BIN BAGS.
MARY R: I got to the point where I was sick and tired of not being able to
deliver to the patients that I was looking after.
MARY F: [PASSES CLOTHES CAREFULLY TO MARY F.]

Here you go.
MARY R: I’ve been thinking about this one time - in the last Trust I worked for,
before we came here…
I was on a very busy surgical admissions unit. I’d have maybe twelve
to fourteen patients under me directly, and then I’d be supervising
another two nurses. So, you know the drill. Assessment – surgery –
into recovery, ok, but then when there were no beds on other wards,
the patients would come back to us. So we had post-op as well…
MARY F: …which is not best practice…
MARY R: …and it got very dangerous.
MARY F: Just tell me if there’s anything you want to keep?
MARY R: It’s just cloth now.

So, I was on a late shift. We’re full to overflowing. Patients with
dementia, patients with very complex needs… We’re doing the
handover, and there’s only me and one grade three one grade three
health care assistant. So I go to the manager…they’re very…what
would you say?
MANAGER: Friendly.
MARY R: Personable.

MARY F: Oily.
MARY R: And this manager goes…
MANAGER: …we just need all hands on at the moment.
MARY R: So I say:
I think the ward is unsafe.
MANAGER: I don’t have anyone else, Mary.
MARY R: So, I’m:

My code of practice tells me to escalate to my managers if I think the
area is unsafe, and I’m telling you as my manager, the area is unsafe.
I’m not prepared to take charge of an unsafe area.
MARY F: …professional judgement.
MANAGER: Oh, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?
MARY R: And then the manager starts with the flattery.
MANAGER: You are one of our most experienced members of staff.
MARY F: At least that’s something our Head Nurse doesn’t do.
MARY R: I’m thinking, what’s this about?

[TO MANAGER] I can’t do the work of two people. I’ve only got
the one pair of hands.
MANAGER: Are you having time management difficulties?

MARY F: You’re joking.
MARY R: Twenty-eight years I’d been working in the NHS. First time I’ve ever
had to refuse to take charge of a ward.
MARY F: Is that what you said?
MARY R: No. I should have done.

I go:
what do you mean?
MANAGER: This is not one of our larger units.
MARY R: There are only two of us on, and only one registered nurse. Me. And
it’s my responsibility.
MANAGER: I don’t see the situation as that bad.
MARY F: Not that bad?
MARY R: You don’t?
MANAGER: Nobody else has made a formal issue of what I admit is a difficult
situation, which we are trying to rectify as quickly as we can. These
safe staffing numbers are guidelines, they’re not hard and fast rules.
We have always implemented them flexibly depending on the
circumstances.
MARY F: So all that work the RCN did on nursing workforce standards?
For nothing?
MANAGER: I’m concerned to make sure that we don’t have a competency issue,
here. If you don’t feel that you can take charge.

MARY F: What about the nurse’s expertise? What about staffing below eighty
per cent should be exceptional?
MARY R: No.
What you’re doing is wrong.
I’m telling you it’s not safe. These patients are at risk of harm.
It’s your job to provide me with the staff needed.
MANAGER: I’m thinking of you too because we all know it’s harder working with
agency nurses when they’re unfamiliar with the ward.
MARY F: Seriously?
MARY R: [TO THE MANAGER] All the time we’re talking here, you could be
finding us more people.
MANAGER: You’re quite right that this is a waste of time.

…
If that’s what you want, I’ll call the agency.
MARY F: So, you got the extra staff?
MARY R: That time, yes. No choice.

But then there was a re-organisation. An’ a job came up here. And
we got this flat. Lindsay found it.
I just felt my face was never going to fit again.
MARY F: We should stop for a bit.

Brought you something.
SHE FETCHES A COUPLE OF GLASSES.

MARY R: Thanks for coming to do this with me, by the way. I’d been putting it
off.
MARY F: You take your time. Thirsty work.

SHE OFFERS MARY R A DRINK.
Dandelion and burdock?
MARY R: They still make that? Where did you get it?
MARY F: I thought it might tickle you…
MARY R: Would you believe it. We used to get this off the milkman. When I
was a kid.
THEY DRINK
MARY R: I remember the strikes in the seventies. In the eighties.
MARY F: Before I qualified.
MARY R: There was a … different kind of workforce. We had the car factories
went out on strike on behalf of the nurses, the railways went out on
strike on behalf of the nurses. People did that because they knew that
it just wasn't even on the agenda that nurses would go out. So, you
know, the army were brought in, but still, we got our pay rise. And
that was because other unions united on behalf of the nurses. You
can't do that any longer.
MARY F: I’ve seen a change in attitude though.
MARY R: If you say so.

MARY F: No, I have. Our Head Nurse had me in for an emergency meeting –
with this other rep - when we were trying to negotiate derogations.
Basically, on their lists, absolutely every part of the service was
essential to life and limb. I had to point out that the levels of safe
staffing they were asking for required more staff than they had on the
pay roll. Even if nobody had gone on strike we’d be falling short.
MARY R: They probably thought nobody would go out.
MARY F: Definitely. Definitely. I said quite blatantly, I think you need to

actually get out there and speak to your members of staff to get their
feelings.
HEAD NURSE: Well, let’s see shall we?
MARY F: So she’s gone all of ten minutes. Talks to this newly promoted band
six. And she comes back an’ she says…
HEAD NURSE: Actually - you’re right. This place is falling apart. The staff have had
enough and they’re gonna go on strike.
BEAT
MARY R: You’re different an’ all, you know. No, you are.
MARY F: Me? I’ll never change.
SCENE 6: COST OF LIVING
MARCUS IS PUSHING KARA HOME FROM NURSERY IN HER

PUSHCHAIR.

MARCUS: Kara’s staying awake, and Kara’s staying awake. …e i ‘adio, Kara’s
staying awake.
SAXAPHONE PLAYS A LULLABY.
What’s the heck is that?
Here mate, will you jazz it up a bit?

I have to try to keep this baby awake, cos if she falls asleep on the
way home from nursery my dear sister don’t get a wink all night.
Seriously, I’ll pay you.
HE FLIPS THE SAXOPHONIST A COIN.
SAXOPHANIST: [SCORNFUL] Ten p?
MARCUS: Cost of living, mate.
SAXOPHONIST DOES A RUDE BLAST.
MARCUS: [HE SQUATS DOWN TO TALK TO KARA.]

Your mum’ll be here in a bit, sweetie pie.
Let’s have a look at the picture you did.
Who’s that?
KARA: Mum.
MARCUS: An’ who’s that?
KARA: Nana.
MARCUS: And that handsome-looking tall one there?
KARA: Marcus.

MARCUS: She’s so intelligent.
MAZZA ARRIVES IN A RUSH.
MAZZA: Thanks so much for picking her up!

Hello honey bunch… [KISSES KARA]
I’m sorry I’m late. Writing up notes.
MARCUS: It’s fine. I’ll walk you home.
[THEY WALK. RAIN BEGINS TO FALL. THEN DRUMS.

MARCUS GETS OUT A BROLLY]
Oh before I forget - letter from nursery.

HE GIVES MAZZA THE LETTER.
MAZZA: Invoice.
SHE OPENS THE LETTER.
Oh bugger.
KARA: Bugger…
MARCUS: I really think you need to clean up that language, sis.
MAZZA: They’ve put the fees up again.

No warning or anything.
I’m already maxed out…
This is the last thing I need.
MARCUS: … I’m sorry.
MAZZA: Don’t even think about it, you help enough.

MARCUS: I hate to mention it, but won’t a certain person want to help?
MAZZA: He probably would if I asked him.

I’ve got some pride.
Anyway, we’ll get a pay rise soon.
MARCUS: Don’t hold your breath.
MAZZA: Well that’s where you’re wrong because in case you didn’t notice the
RCN has called off our action, and they’re in negotiations.
MARCUS: RCN’s conceding, that’s why.
MAZZA: No, they’re not!
MARCUS: I saw Pat Cullen on the telly and she said we weren’t asking for
nineteen per cent any more, she’d settle for less. Did you get to vote
on that? ‘Cos I didn’t.
MAZZA: Marcus, you’re an idiot.
MARCUS: Oh, thanks a lot, sis.
MAZZA: Ok, I take that back, but they ‘ave to negotiate!
MARCUS: Also, I met this very erudite revolutionary in our discussion group last
night.
MAZZA: Your discussion group in the pub?
MARCUS: Yes, and he had very nice eyes as well but that wasn’t why I was
taking notice. He said the other unions thought the RCN was trying to

go it alone on account of everybody fetishizes nurses so the leadership
thought they might as well make the most of it. While they’ve got
public support.
MAZZA: That’s ridiculous.
MARCUS: So why aren’t the RCN going in to negotiate along with the other
unions then?
MAZZA: Who?
MARCUS: Ambulances, patient transport, physios, radiographers, midwives,

admin, porters, domestics, O.Ts… all the other NHS staff unions.
MAZZA: Maybe they think we’ll get further on us own.
MARCUS: I reckon the problem is there’s too many reps on the RCN Council
that want to be gamekeepers not poachers.
MAZZA: [THE INVOICE] How am I gonna pay this?
MARCUS: Kara, show your Mum your family portrait. I think she’s got talent.
Ask her who that handsome body is – there.
MAZZA: [TO KARA] Who’s this pet?
KARA: Mum.
MAZZA: And who’s that?
KARA: Nana.
MAZZA: And this one?

KARA: Sean.
MARCUS: Yer what?
KARA: Sean.
MARCUS: Oh, you fickle minx!
MAZZA: [LAUGHING] Don’t take it bad, our kid. We love you really. We
do!
SCENE 7: THE INVESTIGATION.
NHS ENGLAND CONTRACTED INDEPENDENT

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT INVESTIGATOR IMOGEN
SWEET AND INDEPENDENT COUNSELLOR FROM PRIVATE
COUNSELLING COMPANY DOMINIC ROCK LEAD A
MEETING.
PRESENT, MARY R, MARY F, OTHER NURSING STAFF.
IMOGEN: So hi everyone, my name’s Imogen and this is Dominic and we are

here to put together a report about your experience of the Covid 19
pandemic.
MARY R: I think they were from NHS England – I wasn’t sure.
IMOGEN: We’re aware that this might trigger some difficult feelings and
emotions, and that’s why Dominic is here as a counsellor to offer
support. So if at any time…

DOMINIC: You want to talk… [HE DEMONSTRATES PUTTING HIS HAND
UP]
IMOGEN: And we also have contact details for organisations and resources
available to you on the power point.
CHORUS: This is taking place in the original Victorian hospital building.
Used to be a workhouse. For the town.
They’re still building the new hospital…
…after the private company financing it went bust back in the two
thousands and had to be bailed out by the Government. The disaster
that was PFI.
We had repeated occasions where the pipes burst. And then you’d get
flooding from the sluice on the floor above. Because the plumbing
was archaic…
MARY R: And that day there was a big section of ICU that was cordoned off,
with work going on….
CHORUS: ‘cos there was another serious leak.
MARY F: And we were sitting there talking to them and there was literally
effluent running down the walls.
IMOGEN: So, we’re here in ICU but I believe you weren’t all on this particular
unit at the beginning of the outbreak, but you may have contributed
during it?

NURSE 7: I was actually working in Gastro-Hepatology research when Covid
first emerged.
NURSE 8: So that’s guts and livers,,.
NURSE 7: Guts and livers. Do you want me to go on? I was on ICU at one
point.
IMOGEN: Sure, we need everybody’s experience…
NURSE 7: Our team was working with one of the most eminent liver research
professors in the country… with a a global reputation.
7,8,&9: Amazing guy.
IMOGEN: [TO DOMINIC] Can you smell anything?

DOMINIC SHRUGS – HE CAN’T.
NURSE 7: So he's got the finger on the, you know, his finger on the pulse of of
most information coming and going.
NURSE 9: And I recall…

Because we'd obviously started to hear these, you know, Wuhan flu
things and posters started appearing in our break rooms.
You know, washing your hands and if anybody you know has got
these symptoms blah blah blah.
Anyway, I remember him coming into the department and saying, we
we've got our first case. In the hospital. And we're all like…
7,8&9: Oh My God.
NURSE 8: And by the end of that day we had four.

BEAT.

Very quickly, we were reassessing - most of the research studies that
we were managing - those that were called clinically essential - so any
that weren't, were suspended.
And we were ushered into a variety of of of teams to undergo
specialized training to collect data for COVID studies.
NURSE 7: So we had to go and have some quite extensive PPE training. To able
to go in and out of certain areas of the hospital - and understanding
the new signage. So I think it was…
7,8 &9: …purple, yellow and blue…
NURSE 7: Which were, you know, people who were unaffected. People who
were confirmed and people who were queried as having COVID and
and yes being deployed to then go and collect samples from patients
who were willing to be part of the, the various research studies. To
then feed that into things like the AstraZeneca study.
NURSE 9: Which I actually signed up for myself.
NURSE 7: And a number of staff also signed up for something called the Panther
study, which was an antibody detection.
NURSE 8: Panther, like the cat…
NURSE 9: …big cat.

So a lot of staff across the country voluntarily gave weekly and then
monthly blood donations to track antibody levels.
I was engaged in drawing blood, so I was doing sort of twenty-five to
thirty sets of blood.
Which really honed my phlebotomy skills.

NURSE 8: It was amazing how quickly these things got set up because the setup
for general research studies can be quite a long and arduous process.
There's lots of checking. Rechecking the language is very important.
Consent is at the core of absolutely everything. So, so research on,
anything, you know, globally, cannot happen without consent.
NURSE 7: And then, we got kind of got moved around quite a bit - where the
need was greatest sort of thing.
NURSE 9: I said, I can't necessarily go and be a nurse on an orthopaedic ward

‘cos I don't know anything about those things. But give me an apron
and gloves and a a mask and I will go and help somebody have a wash
or help them eat their dinner or you know, whatever.
If that's where I'm helpful, that's what I'll do.
And there was an awful lot of that that went on within the hospital
‘cos we immediately lost a lot of our volunteers.
NURSE 7: We wouldn't allow the volunteers to come in and they're a massive

part of some of our day-to-day kind of task related activities so they
might move linen around or they might, you know, run errands. But
we couldn't have them in the building, so people had to in some cases,
sort of find their humility.
To say, my job day-to-day is up here. But today I'm going to be a
Porter, you know?
NURSE 8: And people did it and they did pull together, and it was an amazing
thing.
[BEAT]
NURSE 9: But I think as time went on…

I mean the first, the first clap, the first Thursday night clap.

NURSE 7: Brought tears to my eyes.
NURSE 9: Cause our whole street came out.
NURSE 8: They were banging on saucepans and I thought…
ALL CAST: Oh my God, this is wonderful.
NURSE 8: Ohh you know we were so appreciated.
NURSE 9: And then as time went on…

It was a bit like.
Really, we're still doing this?
When is something actually going to happen that makes a difference?
MARY R: I was based here. Same ward. I didn’t move around.

[BEAT]
I was nursing here when my partner Lyndsay caught the virus.
NURSE 9: Oh, my goodness…
MARY R: We both thought if anyone got it, it would be me. Not her. Because
she was teaching in a college, where obviously they were all young
and much less at risk but this was before we knew about
asymptomatic transmission. Whereas I was I was in contact with it all
day every day.
DOMINIC: Do you want to pause?
MARY R: No. I want you to record this. And then I want you to put it in your
report.
Ok?

DOMINIC: Sure. Yep.
MARY R: So, I’d had to move into the Travel Lodge. Next to the Hospital.
Well, we talked about it, and I said I would. Because critical care
nursing is my specialism. And there was a need. Given I was on
ICU. I was nursing very sick patients and I couldn’t really go home.
That was a risk to me, to Lindsay and to my patients. This is before
we had the vaccines. We thought it would be safer.
And it was very demanding. I must have lost nearly a stone. You
couldn’t really snack between meals. Once we got the PPE. And
then you’d got all that equipment on, and it was pretty sweaty.
I was nursing other people’s relatives. Nobody could come in from
outside. And then there was a week, more or less a week when I was
going in to hold the hand of one of our Covid patients - and I knew
Lyndsay was over in one of the wards in the new hospital. Walking
distance. But it was like there was an ocean I couldn’t cross. Half the
world away.
She’d always hated being ill.
She used to smoke when she was in her twenties, but she’d given it up
by the time I met her. There was no particular reason that we knew,
why she’d be vulnerable.
We liked walking. Hill walking. We used to drive over to North
Wales. She would say Snowden didn’t compare with the Munros, but
she liked the hills and I liked the beaches. When she first went in she
could still talk on the phone but within about four hours she was too
poorly to talk and anyway she had her oxygen mask on; and I had no
way to contact her. And then she was gone. Like that. An’ not even
a funeral.
It was so shocking you can’t really take it in.
Still now sometimes I turn round at home, and I’ve started talking to
her before I remember she’s just not there.
There is so much more I wanted to say.
Even if she had known I was there… But I wasn’t.

There’s nobody anymore that really knows me.
And I was looking after other people’s relatives. Doing my best. But
I knew they’d be feeling the same. The same as me. That I was a
stranger.
[BEAT]
NURSE 7: When I hear that…
NURSE 8: I am so sorry for your loss.

MARY ACKNOWLEDGES.
NURSE 9: Those families would be grateful. Every one of them glad that their
relatives were not on their own.
NURSE 7: It was traumatic. For some people. It was.
MARY R IS SHAKING. MARY F PUTS HER ARM ROUND

MARY R, QUIETLY.
NURSE 8: There are cases I’ve seen of staff having PTSD from caring for
patients who were dying without having their families nearby.
NURSE 9: The families, they had to contact the patients over zoom or they had
to do it over the phone.
NURSE 8: And the staff members that were then having to support one the dying
patient and two, the family just you know it it it…
Broke them.
NURSE 7: So when Government officials and ministers started to break the

rules…
I - I just…
The rage I feel over it is still very much with me.

IMOGEN: And you were on the intensive care unit, too?
NURSE 7: Oh, well I think I was supposed to be here for six hours. I ended up
staying for ten and the only thing I was doing was making cups of tea
for the nurses, stocking up the gloves and aprons, making sure
everybody had water if they were moving a patient cos they have to
do this thing called proning...
IMOGEN: Proning?
MARY F: You’ll have a patient who is connected up to a multitude of machines

and lines, so intravenous cannula, intubation tubes, catheter, oximeter
so on and so on, and you’re turning the patient onto their stomach
without dislodging any of that.
NURSE 7: It’s a six or eight-person manoevre.
DOMINIC: [TO IMOGEN] I think there is a smell, you know?
NURSE 7: And so I might, you know, I might be just sort of like…supporting

their feet.
I didn't really do anything clinical, but I was there as an extra pair of
hands if they needed them.
And I just wanted to grab people like Dominic Cummings and Boris
Johnson by the scruff of their necks and drag them into that
environment and you know, there was nobody in that ICU over fifty-
five.
Really.
I was just, I mean, I can feel it building in my body right now.
I was so…
At the callousness and the audacity.
That these people who are supposedly in power, you know, making

decisions for the rest of the country, that they could be so selfish and
stupid and thoughtless.
NURSE 9: Somebody said something recently about if nurses want more pay,
they've got to be prepared to do more.
NURSE 7: There's no words.
NURSE 8: There are no words to…to comprehend how much…anger and

frustration and…
NURSE 7: I'm not a violent person. But feelings that I just literally… Like I
want to grab them by the scruff of their necks and drag them into
these places and say what more do you want these people to give?
IMOGEN: Ok thank you.

Thank you so much.
…
Dominic, you can’t do anything about the smell, can you?
DOMINIC: I don’t think so no.
IMOGEN: [TO THE NURSES] So, I haven’t stopped you, or tried to…
DOMINIC: …structure…
IMOGEN: Thanks, structure the feedback, but one of the points we need to cover
here, one of the things the Trust is assessing is, do you think that you
managed to deliver a gold standard of care?
BEAT.
IMOGEN REGRETS THE QUESTION.

MARY R: Considering we’re operating in a building that’s not fit for purpose…
Given that at this very moment
while we speak
there is excrement running down the walls of this unit.
…
Actually, yes.
Against the odds.
I believe we did provide a gold standard of care.
SCENE 8. CORRIDOR CARE.
CHORUS, CHARGE NURSE, SEAN, MAZZA, PATIENT’S

RELATIVE.
IN WHICH WE SHOW PHYSICALLY HOW TO GET FROM ONE

END OF A CORRIDOR FULL OF PATIENTS TO THE OTHER.
WHILE COUNTING THE TROLLEYS.
CHARGE NURSE: [TO MAZZA]. So what I want you to do is to confirm for me the
number of patients we have in this corridor, how many are currently
waiting for beds and how many could be discharged back home. In
theory.
CHORUS: Our main corridor, you can’t just walk through it. ‘Cos there’s
patients all the way down on trolleys.
I once had to get to this patient at the other end and I had to go up the
stairs, right along through all the wards on the first floor, and then
down the other side.

[ALL] People don’t complain. We’re nurses. We just get on with it.
And you can’t run…
CRASH ALARM SOUNDS.
…unless you hear that….
PANDAMONIUM. MAZZA STRUGGLES TO HELP A CHOKING

PATIENT. THE PATIENT’S RELATIVE IS SHOUTING,
CRYING.
RELATIVE: Do something! Somebody, help! We need a Doctor! He can’t

breathe…
MAZZA STARTS CPR. MAYBE ON TOP OF A TROLLEY.
RELATIVE: Oh, god there’s blood, there’s blood…
A TEAM GATHERS AROUND MAZZA. WITH OXYGEN.

THEY CARRY THE PATIENT AWAY. [ALIVE - TO THEATRE]
A STUNNED MOMENT.
SAXAPHONE OVER.
SEAN IS THERE. HE SITS BY MAZZA.
SHE PUSHES HIM AWAY. THEN SHE PUTS HER ARMS
ROUND HIM. HE HOLDS HER.
CHIEF EXEC: At one point, the head of procurement comes to me and says, we’re
running short of oxygen. It got some coverage in the press. I
couldn’t understand it. Then I said to him, where are we short of

oxygen? Because of course it wasn’t on the wards. It was because
patients are spending so long in ambulances and in corridors, it’s not
the oxygen supply to the beds on the wards; we’re running out of
portable oxygen.
THE BUSTLE RETURNS.
CHORUS: I’m sure we used to have to declare an incident if there were twenty-
four patients on beds in the corridor. Or is that my imagination?
No, she’s right it was twenty-four.
I ‘spose we got used to that.
We did.
CHARGE NURSE: No the safety level was reclassified.
CHORUS: What does that mean?
CHARGE NURSE: Last year. There was a memo.
CHORUS: So then we couldn’t declare an incident until there were over forty.
Beds on the corridor.
And now it’s forty-two, forty-four. Routinely.
An' they’ve got no privacy.
[TWO NURSES – SHIELDING AN ELDERLY PATIENT] Well,

you do what you can.
When they have to go to the toilet and that, you try to shield them,

best you can.
Not good enough.
SCENE 10: AGENDA FOR CHANGE.
20 CAVENDISH SQUARE. LONDON HQ OF RCN.

MARY F. AND MAZZA ARE ATTENDING A NEW REPS
TRAINING COURSE.
SINEAD: So, this is the famous staircase.
CHORUS: 20 Cavendish Square, London.

HQ of the RCN.
MAZZA: Wow.
MARY F: Like walking into a… pantomime… or…
SINEAD: An old-fashioned theatre set, yes, you noticed.
CHORUS: Chandelier hanging from a gilded ceiling. Wide dog-leg staircase.

Marble treads.
And at each side and right up the walls, massive paintings.
Ancient ruined temples, high columns, clouds caught on a static wind,
empty fields and woods.
A gnarled old tree, dying all the way up, a sparse flourish of leaves
right at the top.
A set waiting for the characters to arrive.

SINEAD: There’s some evidence it was done by a French scene painter from
Drury Lane Theatre. Beginning of the eighteenth century.
MAZZA: [SHE CAN’T BELIEVE IT] This is where you work?
SINEAD: Not really – this is a pretty roundabout way to the staff offices; and
I’m mostly in the Northwest. I just like to show the place to new
reps, cos it’s got quite a story. But if we go upstairs, we can pick up
your nomination forms while we’re here - I’m keen to get you both
signed up for Conference.
CHORUS: We start to climb…
SINEAD: You were saying, Mary?
MARY F: There is something my members are asking…
CHORUS: …several things…
MAZZA: Why has the RCN got like, a stately home?
SINEAD: So…it’s the First World War, yes? and there are hundreds of
thousands of men dying in the trenches, and women nursing in field
hospitals and back home - everywhere they’re needed… and Asquith,
he’s Prime Minister, and living here, right here, with his wife Margot,
she’s famously extravagant…
MAZZA: Parties…
SINEAD: Parties and politics. And she gambles. But it’s all about who you
know, alliances, connections. And all during the time Asquith is in
power he has resisted giving the vote to women. In fact he imprisons
suffragettes. Force feeding, the lot. But then there’s a rebellion in his

own party, and he’s out of power and in nineteen twenty the Asquiths
have to sell the house, to pay off their debts. And the woman who
buys it – Annie Viscountess of Chowdray - she’s solid establishment
but she’s a suffragist - moderate but in favour of votes for women.
And she turns the place into a club, for nurses. The original home of
the RCN. Right here.
MARY F: So, this is where nurses…step onto the stage?
SINEAD: That’s how I feel about it!
MAZZA: I could do with ringing home, seeing if Kara’s ok.
SINEAD: No problem… you can take the nomination forms back with you –
you just need two signatures of members in good standing.
MARY F: What they’re asking, our colleagues – they want to know – we’ve had
so many hiccups…
MAZZA: More than hiccups…
MARY F: …escalating strikes, no derogations - we’d never be doing it at all if

people didn’t feel the whole of our health system is about to crash and
burn. And the Government plays games. And if there is a way out
then it’s ordinary people who will have to pay. It feels like nothing’s
moving.
SINEAD: Ok. One advantage the establishment has, is time. Or, more like,
inertia. They think they can sit it out. And wait for the public to run
out of patience with us. And that we will all run out of energy, and
fight amongst ourselves.
MAZZA: We went on strike and we got another pay cut.

SINEAD: The Council and the staff have to gauge the level of support there is
amongst members, for going on with strikes.
MAZZA: They got that wrong.
SINEAD: I could argue about that, I could try and put the Council’s point of
view.
But why don’t you speak for yourselves? Instead?
It all has to be argued out.
Here, the offices are this way. And the restaurant. [SHE GOES
AHEAD]
MAZZA: Don’t we pay her wages?
MARY F: She’s trying to help, Mazza. You’re being unfair. I see all this…
history… and I just think, look at what we’re up against.
MAZZA: Mmm.
MARY F: What?
MAZZA: I’m not payin’ my subs for a flippin’ tour guide.
SCENE 11: AMBULANCE SERVICES
BLUE LIGHTS.
STRANGE SAXOPHONE MUSIC FILLS THE AIR. IN A
VERSION OF A SIREN.
SEAN IS DRIVING. ARRIVES IN A QUEUE OF AMBULANCES

OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL.

SEAN GETS OUT OF THE DRIVER’S SEAT, OPENS THE BACK
DOORS, COMES INTO THE AMBULANCE.
SEAN: Can I do anything here?
SPAD: Did you tell the A&E manager that it’s a head injury?
SEAN: Yep. There’s ten ambulances ahead of us. How is she?
FIONA: So, signs are not bad, but she needs that CT scan just in case.
SPAD: We need a consultant out here. Talk to them again. Don’t you know
who she is? And now she’s unconscious.
SEAN: You need to talk to my team leader, not me. She’s the boss.
SPAD: Well my boss – the minister – was kicked in the head by sixteen hands
of pure-bred hunter. Let me remind you. An’ she’s due to be
answering questions to a committee in the House on whatever it is
Matt Hancock’s put on twitter now, in…[CHECKS TIME]…four and
a half hours.
So that’s in London.
SEAN: Is she still unconscious?
FIONA: The patient woke up, named the last four Prime Ministers in reverse
order, now she’s asleep. I hope we’re not going to be here all
afternoon.
SPAD: You must be able to do something!
SEAN: We came off our picket line for this.

SPAD: I don’t believe it… You shouldn’t be having strikes in the NHS in the
first place and if my Minister had her way it would be illegal. Why
do you think you’re so special? If you’re a public servant if you’re
paid by the state, why is it suddenly ok to blackmail the government
by threatening people’s lives? In future, it’s going to be like the army
and the police. After this shit show. We’re going to rule it right out
believe you me. And I want to see whoever is in charge.
….
SEAN: Fancy a brew?
FIONA: Lovely.
SPAD: What are you doing? I mean, what do you think you’re doing?
SEAN: This is one of those coincidences isn’t it. You might even say it was
like, ironic. Would you say ironic Fee?
FIONA: I don’t know Sean. I’ve more of a scientific bent. I’d be more
inclined to rely on a correct reading of the patient’s vital signs.
SEAN: No, hear me out. Because, here we are waiting in a queue caused by
what, fifteen years of catastrophic underfunding in the system, and
I’m talking social care as well as health, cos the queue to get into the
hospital is partly because of the failure to get frail but needy people
out the back door and partly because of just running the system too
hot… and the one person you might say could definitely do something
about exactly that problem is lying here, unconscious.
FIONA: Asleep Sean. Not unconscious. You’ll never get your qualifications
if you can’t tell the difference between those two things.

SPAD: God save us from armchair experts in spending other people’s money.
I’m calling the Chief Executive.
SEAN: This feels a bit like a dream. Like it never happened. Like it’s a
version of something that really did happen. But where I get to say
what I’d really want to say. If it happened to me. What was it
though? The thing that really did happen?
SPAD: I’m calling them now.
FIONA: It’s funny. I’ve heard so many colleagues and nurses and health care
workers say, ‘if only we could get the politicians down here to see
what it’s really like, to experience what our working conditions are
like for themselves first hand…
SPAD: Put me through to the Chief Executive of the Trust, please. It’s the
junior health minister’s office.
FIONA: …and just go through exactly what our patients are going through –
they’d change their minds then.’
SPAD: Let me out…

SEAN LETS SPAD OUT OF THE AMBULANCE.
FIONA: …
I’ve never been convinced that would work.
SEAN: It really does remind me of something… This situation…
[CHIEF EXEC ARRIVES AT THE DOORS OF THE

AMBULANCE]
CHIEF EXEC: Hi hello. Who’s in charge here?

FIONA: That would be me. Senior paramedic.
CHIEF EXEC: I’m the Trust’s Chief Exec. Call me Janet. You won’t want me
coming in. Are we ok to keep the door ajar?
[SEAN PINCHES HIMSELF]
FIONA: [TO SEAN] What are you doing?
SEAN: No, it’s definitely some kind of nightmare.
SPAD RETURNS
SPAD: About time. Somebody in authority. I’m Olivia, I spoke with your
PA.
CHIEF EXEC: [IGNORING HER] Patient all right? Warm enough?
FIONA: Concussion but no serious signs of TBI. She’s drowsy, but she can
talk ok, memory of the incident ok, nothing acute.
CHIEF EXEC: [TO SEAN] And you are?
SEAN: Sean Rafferty, EMT.
SPAD: I am really not happy with the Minister’s treatment.
CHIEF EXEC: Junior Minister. Yes, we were really hoping she might be coming in
to negotiations. With the NHS staff group. Looking unlikely in the
short term.
Just need a little more space here, Olivia. Thanks.

So, Fiona. Fiona, yes? What would your response be to the idea of
transferring the patient?
FIONA: Like jumping the queue?
CHIEF EXEC: Not exactly. I’m thinking more of, would it be at all detrimental to
the patient to move her?
FIONA: Well, it’s not ideal.
CHIEF EXEC: But you’ve got her head and neck immobilised, yes?
FIONA: For sure…
CHIEF EXEC: And there’s nothing putting her on a helicopter could make any
worse?
SEAN: We’ll be accountable for this, right?
SPAD: You certainly will.
FIONA: It’s ok Sean.

Our helicopter? For our civilian casualties?
CHIEF EXEC: Over my dead body are they using our resources for this. No. The
pilot will just make use of the hospital’s helipad. If it’s clinically
appropriate. I’ll get Security to clear the site for landing. Walkie
talkie…
FIONA: Where would she be going, in this helicopter?

CHIEF EXEC: Military hospital. Near Blackpool. About a twenty-minute flight they
tell me.
SEAN: Because she’s a government minister?
CHIEF EXEC: No, actually - it’s because she’s in the TA. Who’d ’ve thought?
Some sort of honorary thing, I don’t think she goes on training
exercises anymore. And competitive horse riding is hardly equivalent
to combat. But the army’s offering.
FIONA: And they have a CT scanner?
CHIEF EXEC: Apparently. And it reduces our queue. I’d like you to go with her, so
you can hand over at the other end. There’s an army medic on board.
So just you.
FIONA: Ok.
SEAN: Fee…
CHIEF EXEC: You’re sure?
FIONA: I get paid to the end of my shift?
CHIEF EXEC: We want you back here asap, if you don’t mind.
FIONA: I am on strike.
SEAN: We got called off the picket line cos this was a cat. one head injury.
CHIEF EXEC: Hmm. Well, you did the right thing.

Shall we just get on with it?
[ON WALKIE TALKIE]

Geordie? Bring them in!
[A HELICOPTER FLIES IN. FIONA LEAVES WITH THE

PATIENT, THE SPAD RUNNING TO TRY TO GET ON BOARD
TOO]
SEAN: Would you like a cuppa? Janet?
CHIEF EXEC: You know, Sean. I wouldn’t say no.

I don’t get to stop and talk to anybody much these days.
SEAN: There’s only us here.
CHIEF EXEC: That’s true.

You’re wanting to know what I think.
What I say in the senior staff meetings.
Am I right?
…
You know, all the years that I’ve worked for the NHS – my whole
career - I’ve tried to press for those interventions that make a
difference to our health. Everyone’s health. The public argument is
let’s have more nurses. Let’s have more doctors. And that’s right we
need nurses and we need doctors and we need staff paid at a level that
you can retain them. But can you get coverage like that for say
cutting the prevalence of diabetes in the South Asian British
population? Or mental health support? There are schemes I have
personally introduced, working with local authorities to support
young parents that we can show, irrefutably, improve every aspect of
their children’s lives for decades to come. Decades. So this is long
term social change. Not just health, but educational achievement,
jobs, lower rates of offending, crime stats…. What happened to that
programme? Cut. Cut backs. We can’t afford it, because that’s not
part of NHS targets. In Glasgow – this has long been known - there is

- still - a twenty-five year difference in life expectancy between a
male living in postcodes with the highest average incomes and a male
living with a postcode in the area with the lowest average incomes.
Twenty-five years.
SEAN: The rich live longer.
CHIEF EXEC: They do. And they have a better quality of life.
We can improve all of this. The first thing is to stop treating health
and social care as a market. It isn’t. And there needs to be real
integration between health authorities and local authorities.
But. I’m afraid, Sean. You can’t quote me.
SEAN: I remember what it is. That this reminds me of. When Boris Johnson
had Covid.
CHIEF EXEC: Yes?
SEAN: An’ he was in intensive care. In an NHS hospital. An’ he came out
and he was thanking everybody, said they’d saved his life - and just
for a minute I thought he might be a changed man.
…
Didn’t turn out like that, though.
CHIEF EXEC: Yes. I remember it well.
SAXOPHONE PLAYS: ‘Ah yes, I remember it well…’
SCENE 12 IN THE PARK.
SAXOPHONE.
SEAN, MAZZA, MARCUS, KARA. AND LOTS OF CHILDREN

PLAYING.
MAZZA PUSHES KARA ON THE SWING. KARA LAUGHS.
KARA: Roundabout!
MARCUS: I’ll take her.
MAZZA: Ta bro.
SHE SITS ON A BENCH NEXT TO SEAN.
I get motion sick on that thing.
…
What’s up?
SEAN: Nothing.
MAZZA: Are you sure?
SEAN: …
MAZZA: I’ve been thinking. About what you said about not letting our lives
slip out of our hands.
SEAN: Is that what I said?
MAZZA: Yeah, well I thought so. You said you’d marry me in my cut-offs, I
know that.
SEAN: I’ve got something to tell you.
MAZZA: Oh god… It’s Fiona, in’t it?
SEAN: No, what? Why are you saying that?

MAZZA: I just thought.
SEAN: You don’t trust me.
MAZZA: It was just when you said you got something to tell me…
SEAN: She’s my work partner an’ that’s it. And I shouldn’t even have to say
it. For god’s sake Mazza.
MAZZA: So what is it then? Tell me!

…
I’m not guessing again.
SEAN: I got a training place. To move up to paramedic.
MAZZA: That’s bazzin’, Sean!
SEAN: It’s two years.
MAZZA: I know.
SEAN: I’m going to sound like a hypocrite.
MAZZA: You’re worried about your salary?
SEAN: There is a cost, but I still get paid. And it’ll mean I can go up to a
higher pay grade. Eventually.
MAZZA: So, what’s the problem? You deserve it, it’s your chance.
SEAN: It’s in Ipswich.

MAZZA: Oh.
SEAN: I’ve got to move.
MAZZA: Ok.
SEAN: I’ll come back. Don’t look like that.
MAZZA: Like what?
SEAN: I can come back when I’m not rostered. And obviously at the end, I
can look for something here.
MAZZA: You can. You can.

By the way, I’m voting against going on strike again.
SEAN: Are you?
MAZZA: I know it doesn’t solve the problem. I know the deal was not enough.
But I need money now.
SEAN: That’s a bit short term…
MAZZA: Your union voted to accept the five percent in the first place. Talk to
them. Where were you when we needed you?
SEAN: I’m talking about you and me.
MAZZA: Yeah, I know.

Sorry.
Look, you should go for it.
Don’t worry about us. We’ll sort ourselves out.
…

Right Kara, it’s my turn on that roundabout now!
CHILDREN PLAY TAG.

SAXOPHONE.
SCENE 13 HOSPITAL CANTEEN.
A MASS MEETING.
PRESENT CHORUS, MARY F., MARY R., MAZZA, MARCUS.
MARY F IS CHAIRING.
MARY F: So here we are.

An’ we’ve got some decisions to make.
Firstly, I want to thank everyone who has supported me and
encouraged me to stand for RCN council. Especially my good friends
here. You know who you are. An’ I’m hoping that some people who
don’t feel they can stand right now, will reconsider in the near future.
MARCUS NUDGES MAZZA AND APPLAUDS.

OTHERS JOIN IN.
FINALLY, MAZZA TOO.
Now everybody’s got the motions in front of you – if you haven’t we
can pass the papers down the rows – thanks…
...the items that are going to be debated next week.
Do we affiliate to the TUC?
Do we argue for a separate pay scale just for nurses, as part of the
national framework, Agenda for Change? Pretty contentious, that
one.
And the big question. How do we get the kind of resolution to our
disputes that we all need – patients, staff, everybody?
Ok, so who would like to speak first?

SAXOPHONE.

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WIGGIN LANE

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 1

HER COLLEAGUE MARY SALOME (MAZZA), 27, GRADE 5

MARY ROSE (MARY R), 57, ADVANCED NURSE

MARCUS WILLIAMS, 23, STUDENT NURSE, STEP-BROTHER

FIONA, HIS TEAM-MATE, GRADUATE PARAMEDIC WITH

MRS IRENE FAZACKERLY, PATIENT, HEART CONDITION.

SINEAD, RCN ORGANISER, THIRTY-ISH, DEGREE IN

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 2

HEALTH MINISTER’S SPECIAL ADVISOR (SPAD), OLIVIA

TRUST’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE JANET LESSER, 59 (CHIEF

CHARGE NURSE WILKINSON, UROLOGY MATRON.

MARY R’S MANAGER.

IMOGEN PRYKE, RESEARCHER AND DOMINIC COOPER,

CHORUS: COMPRISING NURSES, HEALTH CARE

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 3

CHORUS OF PICKETS, INCLUDING MARY FAY, MARY ROSE,

CHORUS: Somewhere in Lancashire.

Busy road normally…

Fields across the way, then a housing estate…

We’re all bunched up on the pavement. In us uniforms.

It’s a chilly morning in February. Twenty twenty-three.

Not that bad… Tha’s allus bin nesh.

[LOUD] What do we want? …

MAZZA: I knew this Mary, my namesake, and our kid.

MARY R: I knew Marcus because he had recently completed a placement with

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 4

MAZZA: Hey! Drop the attitude! Mary’s an advanced nurse practitioner.

MARCUS: Hear that? You need more like me…

CHORUS: Come on, let’s give it some welly! What do we want?

MAZZA: We all knew what we wanted…

CHORUS: [ALL] Safe staffing!

When do we want it?

MARY R: At that point we were pretty much of one mind.

MARY R: Well, we’d been agonising for months…

MAZZA: …and the Tories weren’t up for negotiating.

CHORUS: What do we want?

[ALL] Safe staffing!

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 5

[A SUPPORTER DRIVES PAST HONKING THEIR HORN.

MARY R: It’s not as if it was an easy decision.

MARY F: Every winter is bad, but this is the worst ever…

CHORUS: Some went out in January.

KARA: [HER TRAINERS ARE TOO TIGHT]. Ow ow ow ow, Mam!

CHORUS: Mam mam mum mummy mam!

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 6

MAZZA: You’ll get moss stains on yer anorak.

MARCUS: What, where?

MAZZA: Got yer!

CHORUS: …with us placards and leaflets an’ stickers an’ flasks…

An’ picket supervisor high vis vests…

MARY R: Not me at all, really.

MARY F: But we knew what was needed and we had to do something.

CHORUS: What do we want?

[ALL] Fair pay!

When do we want it?

Wiggin Lane - First Draft. Page 7

MARCUS: An’ Marcus.

CHORUS: There must be forty or so nurses…

An’ health care assistants…

…round this gate.

Further down the lane there’s a whole lot more…