HOPES that the north's biggest ever health service strike would be averted were genuinely felt by nurses and NHS staff at teatime on Tuesday.
The reason for their optimism was an eleventh-hour intervention by the leaders of the north's five main political parties who penned a letter to Secretary of State Julian Smith, in which they not only backed workers' calls for pay parity but "urged" him to restore it.
Nurses who have been demanding their wages are brought into line with their English, Scottish and Welsh counterparts were "buoyant" as they felt their voices were finally being listened to, according to trade union chief Pat Cullen.
But that mood quickly soured as Mr Smith made clear that a restored assembly was the only mechanism to push through any changes.
For the thousands of staff who took to the picket lines outside the north's main hospitals yesterday, anger at their treatment by politicians over the past decade dominated, with the feeling that they were being used as "political footballs" to get Stormont up and running.
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Concerns about the management of a system propped up by expensive agency staff - some nurses are being flown in from England due to the inability to attract and retain staff - were a constant theme.
But others were also visibly upset that they were leaving patients and that it had "come to this".
Many staff we spoke to had spent decades working in the health service - from an auxiliary theatre nurse, to ICU nurses, to paramedics - and all stressed that the thousands of vacancies had created "unsafe" conditions for patients.
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Health trust bosses and the north's chief medical officer have firmly rejected claims in recent weeks that care is being compromised by staff shortages.
However, in the words of one worker yesterday, the situation has reached "breaking point" - not just for the 306,000 patients on waiting lists but for burnt-out and demoralised staff.
In the absence of any solution, further industrial action is set to continue until next March, which will undoubtedly lead to more cancelled appointments and distress for patients.
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The Secretary of State has now passed the buck back to Stormont, with a 'health summit' of political leaders planned today.
The need for those politicians to find a resolution has never been more pressing.
