It probably isn't good for patients. But it has reached a breaking point where NOT striking is worse for patients. Nurses are currently grossly understaffed and pick up hours without overtime pay because they don't want to harm the patients. Many are working 80-100 hour weeks for their 37.5hour per week contracts. They do it because it's work that needs to be done. But they're so overworked, so miserable, and barely living with enough money (especially in london) to survive. These conditions cause bad nursing, which kills patients. The outcome of these strikes will be a net improvement for patients.

UK nurses have never striked before for exactly that reason. That's how monumental this is.