Nurses to strike for first time in union’s history today with cancer care and A&E departments to be hit by walkouts
NURSES are today striking for the first time in their union’s history.
Health chiefs urged Brits to keep using the NHS as normal amid a row over how clinics will stay open.
Cancer treatment, A&E departments and outpatient appointments will be hit by walkouts after crisis talks broke down.
Nurses up and down the country this morning have gathered in freezing temperatures to join the picket line.
One nurse today said that she has been in the profession for 22 years and has 'never seen anything like this'.
Joanne McCarthy, a paediatric surgical nurse in Cardiff said experienced nurses are often going home crying due to the conditions they are faced with.
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“We go into nursing to care for families, to look after them as we would want our own families to be, but we can’t do that at the minute, it’s heartbreaking. That’s what we’re out here fighting for today," she said.
However, despite the protests, nurses are continuing to help patients, with some even breaking the picket line in Bristol this morning to help a passerby after they slipped and fell over outside Bristol Royal Infirmary.
Health minister Marie Caulfield said there is 'huge regrets' over the walkouts and added that the government would be sticking to the recommendation on pay set out by an independent body.
She added that if the government agreed to meet the wage demand from nurses then it would have to either increase taxes and borrowing - or cut services.
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However, Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary Pat Cullen said when the Government closes their door on nurses - they also turn their back on patients.
"I have made every attempt to get into a room with (Health Secretary) Steve Barclay and to talk to him about nurses’ pay and to try and have those issues addressed, and he has refused to do that.
“He has brought me into meetings and talked about anything else but nurses’ pay.
“He has closed his books and walked away and not put one extra brown penny on the table for these brilliant nurses," she said.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the strike is a “badge of shame” for the government.
Many hospitals will be cut back to bank holiday or night duty staffing levels, delaying patient care.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers said that NHS trusts are 'pulling out all the stops' to lessen the impacts on patients.
NHS England’s deputy chief nursing officer, Charlotte McArdle, said: “While strikes will cause inevitable disruption, local NHS teams have worked hard to maintain as many appointments as possible.
“It is important people attend appointments as planned unless they have been contacted for it to be rearranged.”
Around a third of hospitals in England will be involved in the first wave – up to 44 NHS trusts.
The Royal College of Nursing said urgent cancer treatment will go ahead as well as emergency or life-critical hospital, community and mental health services.
Efforts to avoid the strike failed as ministers refused to budge on the RCN’s pay demands.
The union offered to suspend industrial action if given a sign of a better offer – but did not get an olive branch.
Sir Keir Starmer slammed Rishi Sunak in Prime Minister’s Questions for refusing to negotiate with the nurses.
He said: “Nurses going on strike is a badge of shame for this Government.
“Instead of showing leadership, he is playing games with people's health and there is a human cost.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the RCN's demands – for a 19 per cent rise worth £10billion – are "unaffordable".
Downing Street today said a one per cent pay rise for all NHS staff except doctors, dentists and very senior managers would cost £700 million.
The RCN has asked for a salary boost equal to around 19 per cent, which ministers say would cost a staggering £10billion.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Further pay increases would mean taking money away from frontline services at a time when we are tackling record waiting lists as a result of the pandemic.
“My number one priority is to keep patients safe and I’ve been working across government and with medics outside the public sector to ensure safe staffing levels.
“But I do remain concerned about the risk that strikes pose to patients.”
NHS Employers, which represents hospital bosses, said it was worried about the hit to cancer patients.
CEO Danny Mortimer said: “There are areas where we are disappointed that we have not been able to make more progress with the RCN.
“The limited national derogations for cancer services are a particular area of worry.”
The UK’s four chief nurses had urged the union not to put patients’ lives at risk and keep cancer services running.
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But RCN bosses agreed only to maintain the most urgent clinics.
A second strike is set to take place next Tuesday, December 20, followed by ambulance strikes the next day.
