These are the people suffering with NHS cuts you probably haven't heard about

Radiographers are just the unknown, hidden away in dark rooms who, to the rest of the hospital, aren't relevant to anything. And yet the majority of other professions couldn’t do their jobs without us

Radiographers are essential to the NHS, coming into contact with 95 per cent of patients who enter a hospital (Getty)

I am a diagnostic radiographer and mammographer in the NHS. I have been qualified almost eight years, and after undertaking a postgraduate programme in breast imaging I was awarded a band six role. I have spent four years at university in total to be where I am today.

I work a mixture of shifts, days and nights, and I rotate throughout the X-ray department in a range of modalities, including CT. I am expected to be competent in all these areas, and I am spread quite thinly.

We are an average department and, until two years ago, we were a happy department. Funding cuts, lack of recruitment and high levels of staff sickness and stress have all had a negative impact on morale, which in turn has an impact on the efficient running of the department. Often there are long waits due to lack of staff, or a room might be broken (again!), or there may just be so much demand on us and we cannot cope.

Our management are under pressure from their management who are under pressure from their management, and at times we feel completely undervalued, unappreciated and unsupported.

Radiographers are the heart of modern medicine. On average, 95 per cent of patients will require a radiographer's care during their visit to hospital, whether they are an inpatient or an outpatient, which is why the demand and pressure on us is so great.

We are in charge of millions of pounds worth of equipment, which takes a great deal of training and skill to master, despite the common misconception that we are “button pushers”. We have to have extensive knowledge of anatomy, physiology, physics and mathematics. Someone once asked me why I hadn't pushed myself and become a nurse instead. The look on their face when I told them the radiography degree was the same length of time as the nursing one, and required just as much skill and knowledge.

We work in a wide range of settings. Radiographers are the first professionals in a patient's line of care to know that the patient has cancer. They allow you to see your unborn child for the first time. They allow your surgeon to plan your operation so it runs smoothly, and provide imaging during your operation. They may be involved in forensics, and postmortem examinations. X-rays ensure your fractures are healing properly, and confirm that your cough is just a chest infection and nothing more sinister. Therapeutic radiographers plan your radiotherapy, and get you through it. Radiology is a vast world, and people don't even realise half of what we do. Advanced radiographers even report on scans and images, taking over the traditional role of the radiologist. The responsibilities we have are huge.

We see patients from all walks of life – at the most exciting and most terrifying times in their lives. We might tell them the worst news they have ever heard, or let them listen to their unborn baby's heartbeat for the first time. Learning to detach yourself from your patients is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to teach myself, and I try to go home at the end of the day and leave work at work. This doesn't always happen. I am only human, after all.

We are quite possibly the most undervalued profession within the NHS. I may be being biased, but if you asked a random person what a radiographer does, nine times out of 10 they wouldn't know. We are just the unknown, hidden away in dark rooms who, to the rest of the hospital, aren't relevant to anything. And yet the majority of other professions couldn’t do their jobs without us. Doctors, surgeons, pathologists, dentists, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists – they all need radiographers at one time or another to do their jobs correctly and safely.

It infuriates me when the media portray the NHS as consisting only of doctors and nurses. I find it even more infuriating to read about how all these nurses are leaving their jobs because of the stress – and yet it's happening to all professions all over the NHS. I know of fellow radiographers who would rather go and work in a supermarket. The minimum wage keeps rising, for jobs with minimal responsibility. And yet we are saving lives every day, and accountable for so much, and we don't even deserve more than a 1 per cent pay rise?

We are consistently being undercut, and as the cost of living rises, all NHS professions find themselves struggling to make ends meet. The NHS is always trying to save money. Buying in the cheapest stock possible (which is never any good), employing healthcare assistants or assistant practitioners in place of the qualified professional to save money (who are still amazing, do a wonderful job and without whom we would be lost!) or by not paying the correct grade for the amount of responsibility. Opportunities to progress are few and far between, and many NHS radiographers end up tempted by the private sector.

After recent tragic events, it was highlighted how important our NHS is, and how sacred it is. The Government need to start appreciating us, and helping to make the NHS great again – before it's too late and it collapses all together. I fear we may have already gone past this point, and eventually we will all pay for our healthcare.

I think it’s only at that point that the public will realise what they had, and how good it actually was.

I wrote this not just for my fellow radiographers but for all the forgotten NHS professionals who work tirelessly every day and do their best for their patients yet don't receive the praise or the coverage they deserve.

Karen James is a pseudonym