Nurses in England and Wales are set to stage two more strikes involving more NHS workers next month as their wage dispute with the government appears to be far from over.
In response to the escalating union action, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said nurses would go on strike at 73 trusts across England from 6-7 February. Around 12 Welsh health councils and organizations will also take part in the strikes for two consecutive days. The RCN will take no action in Northern Ireland on this matter, and the strike in Scotland is on hold while negotiations continue.
Nurses from 55 NHS trusts in England are due to leave as early as Wednesday and Thursday this week, causing tens of thousands of surgeries and appointments to be cancelled.
The RCN’s decision to go on strike on February 6 coincides with the 10th anniversary of Robert Francis’s NHS Foundation investigation into Middle Staffordshire, which highlights the impact of a shortage of carers on patient care and excess mortality. The NHS currently has over 47,000 nursing vacancies, representing almost 12% of the total nursing workforce.
The investigation uncovered the neglect of hundreds of patients at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2009, as well as reports of some older people lying in their own urine, unable to eat, drink or take basic medications.
In a letter to the Minister of Health last week, Mr Francis and Patients’ Association chief executive Rachel Power described the current strain on the NHS and the high death rate as “central staff playing nationally, if not worse.”
It is expected that during the strike, health services in many areas will hold a celebratory service. For this week’s strikes, RCN has committed personnel to chemotherapy, cancer emergency, dialysis, intensive care units, neonatal and pediatric intensive care.
Certain areas of mental health, learning disabilities, and autism treatment services are also tax exempt, while trusts may request staff for specific clinical needs. When it comes to ER and adult emergency care, nurses work Christmas-style schedules.
Rescuers are expected to announce new strike dates on Wednesday. Union leaders will announce the results of the ER meeting around noon on Monday. Six more appointments are under discussion after talks with Health Secretary Steve Barclay collapsed last week.
RCN Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: “It is with heavy hearts that the nurses are on strike this week and again in three weeks. Instead of negotiations, (Prime Minister) Rishi Sunak chose strike again. We are doing this in a desperate attempt to get him and the ministers to bail out the NHS.
“The only sure solution is to fill tens of thousands of unfilled positions – patient care is suffering like never before. My olive branch to the government – a request to meet and start negotiations – is still there. You must receive it.
The RCN has called for a 5% wage increase over retail inflation (RPI), which is currently over 19%, although Ms Cullen said she would accept a lower offer, offering a compromise of around 10%.
Inflation was at 7.5% when RCN submitted a 5% figure to the Independent Wage Review in March. But inflation has risen sharply since then, with an RPI of 14.2 percent in September.
Trust leaders called further strikes “deeply disturbing”. Saffron Corderi, acting CEO of NHS Providers, said: “The healthcare system is already too weak as trust leaders struggle to cope with the industry’s continued actions along with other growing pressures on the NHS.
“We have seen how devastating these strikes can be, and larger strikes are likely to have an even greater impact. Nobody wants this to continue. We understand the frustrations of caregivers and how they got to this point: sub-inflation wages, a cost-of-living crisis, severe staffing shortages and increased workloads have resulted in near-impossible conditions.
“There are three weeks between today and these newly announced dates in February. This is more than enough time for the government and unions to start wage negotiations in 2022-23 and avoid further strikes.”
Downing Street urged union leaders to cancel the action. A spokesman for the prime minister said: “Of course, we will continue to urge unions to stop strikes that will affect patient care.
“We know that 11,000 appointments were canceled during the first round of strikes. Therefore, it is inevitable that this will have a greater impact on a larger scale, and this is very unfortunate at a time when health care is under great pressure. We believe that there have been constructive discussions with the trade unions, and we would like them to continue, and not pickets.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.