The strike by health workers has the backing of SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan.
Staff at Altnagelvin Hospital are among health workers across the North staging a four-hour walk-out over pay.
Nurses, paramedics and midwives are among those staging a picket outside the hospital.
The walkout began at 8.00am this morning and is due to end at noon.
Mr Durkan said he been contacted in recent months by a number of nurses who had highlighted that the “deterioration” in pay standards combined with service stresses was having a negative impact on professional morale.
The Foyle MP has also recently co-sponsored a parliamentary motion at Westminster condemning the British Government’s decision to reject the Independent Pay Review Body’s recommendation that all NHS staff receive a one per cent cost of living pay increase.
Mr Durkan said: “I fully support the Health Service workers at Altnagelvin who are staging a four-hour strike today.
“I am also deeply concerned that the deterioration in nursing pay standards combined with service stresses is having a negative impact on professional morale.
“The government has restricted pay rises for nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants for over four years.
“The projected ongoing flat pay freeze for hard pressed public servants especially in health and care services was one of my reasons for voting against the Budget.
“Nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants have also rightly highlighted the government inconsistency and cynicism in variously invoking and ignoring the Independent Pay Review Body.”
He concluded: “It is particularly invidious to conscript the Independent Pay Review Body to re-profile nursing pay and conditions as the source for funding policy changes to a seven day care model.”
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