Nurses in England say they are ready to go on strike until the summer as their row with the government appears to be ongoing.
The pledges were made at picket lines across the country on the day the NHS experienced the biggest day of strikes in its history. Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) left 77 trusts and were joined for the first time by some 10,000 ambulance crews.
The RCN, which is currently tasked with holding strikes until May, said the strikes would continue “as long as they last”, while Unite warned of a “continuous cycle” of union action.
Nurses will strike again on Tuesday, paramedics again on Friday and physical therapists on Thursday, causing hospitals to close for a week. Tens of thousands of appointments and non-urgent surgeries are expected to be postponed.
Union leaders have asked the government to take action to prevent more strikes, but ministers in England have said they will not waive wages for 2022/23, a key bone of contention.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said during a picket outside St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, west London, that nurses’ strikes will continue until the government listens to their demands.
“Everyone sees the resilience of our medical staff, these brilliant people who are on the picket today and lose their salaries for another day. They say enough from the patients, enough from them,” she said.
“They are not ready for their NHS to be managed in a crisis every day. They are trying to save their National Health Service from the abyss, and they will do so as long as this government listens to them.”
Strikes due to take place in Wales on Monday were called off as the Welsh government offered higher wages to NHS workers. Ms Cullen urged Rishi Sunak to resume talks and accused the prime minister of “punishing” nurses in England who were “left behind”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that if wage negotiations do not resume, it will lead to “a continuous cycle of strikes that clearly no one wants”. She said, “This year’s salary has to be decided.”
Some 88,000 appointments and surgeries had already been postponed due to strikes before the action kicked off this week. The leaders of the trusts said they could not function properly until union action was stopped.
Saffron Corderi, Associate Director of NHS Providers representing NHS funds, said: “We are planning an incredibly busy week. I hope this ends when the government sits down at the negotiating table to negotiate this year’s payout for NHS workers.”
But during a visit to Kingston Hospital in southwest London, Health Minister Steve Barclay appeared to rule out a new wage deal for the current financial year.
“We will be talking to unions about wages next year – starting in April,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right to go back to last year, to April. We need to get in touch with the wage inspectorate, who are now collecting evidence and working constructively with unions.”
Mr Barclay said he wants to “work constructively with unions” on collective bargaining next year. The prime minister’s spokesman also said the government wants to look ahead and not “look back” when it comes to negotiations with health workers’ unions.
Source: I News
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