NHS nurses are to strike for 2 days in December in a dispute over pay and affected person security.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will take industrial motion on 15 and 20 December throughout England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
In Scotland, industrial motion is being paused whereas pay negotiations proceed.
The strike poll amongst greater than 300,000 members of the RCN was the largest within the union’s 106-year historical past.
The union has demanded its members obtain a pay rise of at the very least 17%, including that years of low pay is “pushing nursing staff out of the profession and putting patient care at risk”.
Nurses had given the federal government a deadline to open “detailed negotiations” and threatened to announce strike dates for December.
RCN common secretary Pat Cullen stated: “My offer of formal negotiations was declined and instead ministers have chosen strike action.
“Nursing workers have had sufficient of being taken as a right, sufficient of low pay and unsafe staffing ranges, sufficient of not with the ability to give our sufferers the care they deserve.”
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Is your space among the many worst affected by nurses’ strike?
Pay demand ‘not reasonably priced’
The well being secretary praised the onerous work and dedication of nurses, and expressed his deep remorse that some might be taking industrial motion.
Steve Barclay stated: “These are challenging times for everyone and the economic circumstances mean the RCN’s demands, which on current figures are a 19.2% pay rise, costing £10bn a year, are not affordable.”
The RCN’s demanding a rise based mostly on the RPI inflation fee (which was 14.2% in October) plus 5%.
In England and Wales, NHS workers have seen a mean rise of 4.75% this 12 months, in Scotland the supply was a flat fee of simply over £2,200, whereas in Northern Ireland no pay award might be accredited with out an Executive in place.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt – who beforehand held the publish of well being secretary – stated he has a “great deal of sympathy” for nurses fighting the price of dwelling, however insists the easiest way to assist them is to convey inflation down.
Data from the London School of Economics discovered salaries of skilled nurses have declined by 20% in actual phrases during the last 10 years. This means nurses are successfully working sooner or later every week totally free.
That mirrors current analysis by the well being charity Nuffield Trust, which stated NHS workers pay remained decrease in actual phrases in 2021/22 than it was in 2010/11.
NHS vacancies at report excessive
Nursing vacancies hit a report 47,000 in England between April and June, an increase of a fifth on the 12 months earlier than.
The RCN says 25,000 nursing workers within the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register within the final 12 months.
This summer season, MPs from the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee described the staffing points as “the greatest workforce crisis” within the historical past of the NHS.
The union blames not simply pay, but additionally heavy workloads.
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The RCN just isn’t the one well being union threatening strike motion.
A poll amongst Unison members closes on Friday, and amongst Unite’s NHS members subsequent week.
Midwives and physiotherapists are additionally voting on taking motion, and junior docs might be balloted within the new 12 months.
Meanwhile, ambulance workers in Scotland are resulting from stroll out on Monday.
Labour blames Tory ‘negligence‘
Shadow well being secretary Wes Streeting blamed the federal government for failing to barter with the RCN.
He stated: “Patients already can’t get treated on time, strike action is the last thing they need, yet the government is letting this happen. Patients will never forgive the Conservatives for this negligence.”
What in regards to the security of sufferers?
Unlike strikes in different sectors, some nurses might be exempt from collaborating in strike motion – referred to as “derogations” – to take care of protected staffing ranges and guarantee sufferers aren’t harmed.
An RCN spokesperson stated: “We are committed to ensuring life-preserving service is in place and will be confirming derogations with individual employers in due course.”
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Nurses might comply with the instance set in Northern Ireland in 2019, when workers went on strike.
The RCN has described on its web site how staffing was managed on three ranges:
• full derogation, with a complete service being staffed like intensive care models
• restricted to a Sunday service or Christmas Day service
• restricted to an evening responsibility mannequin
Could company employees substitute putting nurses?
The RCN recommendation is evident: “If you’re an agency worker allocated to work at an NHS organisation on a day of strike action, we at the RCN expect that you do not cover that shift.
“You might ask your company to search out you various work at an organisation that’s not taking strike motion, for instance a non-public hospital or care house.”
That does not imply company workers must comply with the recommendation, although – and a few shifts might be profitable.
A current freedom of data request by Labour confirmed one in three NHS trusts have paid an company greater than £1,000 for a single shift final 12 months, and one in six trusts paid greater than £2,000.
Source: information.sky.com”