As one of those "health service workers" that was underpaid, I was prepared to go on strike till we got paid what we were worth, but not enough others were, so they continued to get underpaid- IMO they only had themselves to blame.
I didn't continue to be voluntarily underpaid as I went to a different country where I did get paid what I was worth. Recently, nurses are in high demand around the world and nurses are choosing to go where they are better paid, which means that the countries that don't value their nurses are missing out.
If nurses are actually having to go to food banks to feed their families ( what are their partners doing to feed their families? ), they should ask themselves why they didn't take action about it in the past.