The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Wednesday that nurses in many, but not all, hospitals and other NHS care settings will take action before Christmas and may continue to strike until next May. The upcoming strikes are likely to be the first in a potentially prolonged series of actions through the winter and into the spring by different groups of health workers. NHS bosses are preparing for action by junior doctors, ambulance staff and others. It is the first time in the RCN’s 106-year history that it has instigated a compulsory ballot of its members in all UK counties on industrial action. “Anger has become action. Our members are saying enough is enough,” said Pat Cullen, the union’s general secretary and chief executive. “Our members will no longer tolerate a financial spike at home and a raw deal at work.” However, the RCN did not reveal how many of the 300,000 members it polled had voted or how many had supported or rejected the strike. The results of the vote reflect widespread anger among nurses that the government refused to increase its offer it made in July for a pay rise of at least £1,400 to around one million people working in the health services in England, worth between 4.5% and 5%. Cullen urged the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to use his budget next week to find extra money to give nurses a much bigger rise and thus avert the prospect of a long-running dispute. “Ministers need to look in the mirror and ask how long they are going to put nursing staff through this. While we plan our strike action, next week’s Budget is the UK Government’s opportunity to signal a new direction with serious investment,” he said. “This action will be for both patients and nurses. Standards are falling too low and we have strong public support for our campaign to raise them.’ Health unions have condemned the proposed increase as “insulting” and “degrading” and amounting to a real cut in nurses’ pay, given inflation is running at 10.1%. They are pushing for an increase at least in line with inflation, while the RCN is seeking a 5% rise above inflation. Services in many UK hospitals will have to be reduced because nurses have voted to strike. However, others will not be affected because either at least 50% of members there did not participate in the workplace vote or at least 50% of those who did vote did not support the strikes, which are two of the legal hurdles unions must overcome. before it hits. Nurses voted to strike at several major hospitals, including St Thomas’ in London – which is opposite the Houses of Parliament – as well as Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, University Hospital Wales in Cardiff and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. . NHS bosses have pledged to prioritize “critical services” such as A&E and emergency surgery during strikes, but scheduled operations and outpatient appointments are likely to be postponed and chemotherapy or dialysis sessions rescheduled . The lack of nurses to carry out the usual range of services will mean that hospitals are only offering the kind of reduced services they normally provide at the weekend or during bank holidays. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The RCN has not said when the first strike will take place. But it is likely to be in early to mid-December and take place over two days, possibly a Tuesday and a Thursday, to show ministers the depth of feeling about what health unions are calling a “despicable” pay offer. Salaries for experienced nurses have fallen by 20% in real terms since 2010, according to research commissioned by the RCN from consultancy London Economics. However, the Health Foundation estimated that nurse pay declined by much less – 5% – after adjusting for inflation between 2011 and 2021. Education secretary Gillian Keegan was ridiculed earlier on Wednesday after she said nurses were using food banks because their “relationship or boiler” had broken down. Asked on Sky News about nurses resorting to using food banks, she replied: “Quite often when you go to food banks, something will have happened, you know, something will have broken – either a relationship or something else. They are usually in an emergency situation.” Rachel Harrison, the national secretary of the GMB union, said Keegan’s comments demonstrated “a stunning lack of empathy”. Nurses and other NHS workers have been forced to rely on food banks “because they are desperate after more than a decade of real pay cuts under the Conservatives”. “Does Mrs Keegan think we have 135,000 vacancies in the NHS due to separations?” Harrison asked. The minister also said that nurses would be wasting their time by going on strike. “I don’t think there’s any point in going on strike,” he said. “I would encourage nurses to continue these conversations. But the reality is that if we did huge increases above inflation, not only would we have to raise a lot more money, but it would actually feed inflation.” The Department of Health and Social Care said the £1,400 minimum offer came a year after NHS workers were given a 3% rise in 2021-2022 at a time when wages in the rest of the public sector were frozen.
