MIDWIVES, support workers and cleaners were among the NHS staff on strike at the John Radcliffe Hospital yesterday.

As part of a row with the Government over pay, staff across the county walked out at 7am for a four-hour strike, with about 25 people picketing outside the Headington hospital.

Clinical support worker and Unison member Kim Chaulk led chants of “low pay, no way” as commuters driving past honked their horns in support of the strike.

The Barton resident, 57, said: “I’m on £8 an hour and I have been for a year. Agency nurses get £13 an hour. That’s disgusting.

“I’m here because I wanted to speak out for other carers who are scared and frightened for their jobs.”

Nina Van Shaick, a midwife and member of the Royal College of Midwives, said the pay was not her primary concern.

The Wolvercote resident, 32, said: “We do it because we want to help women have their babies in a safe way, but we all work hours of unpaid overtime with no breaks and no support.”

Staff from the Churchill Hospital, Warneford Hospital, Slade Hospital and Horton General Hospital also went on strike, as well as staff at medical centres in Oxford, Abingdon, Wallingford and Wantage.

Department of Health spokeswoman Stephanie Knox said: “We have taken tough decisions to increase the NHS budget, but we can’t afford a consolidated pay rise in addition to increments without risking 10,000 frontline jobs.”