The trust said there would also be reduced staffing in community nursing services including rapid response nursing, district nursing, community respiratory nursing and continence services. The Western Trust in Northern Ireland said it had "regrettably taken the decision to cancel some non-emergency services", with 587 outpatient appointments postponed across Altnagelvin Hospital, Omagh Primary Care and Treatment Centre and South West Acute Hospital. Several trusts have already given details of cancelled outpatient appointments and planned treatments. "We need to find a way as a government, and the union does too, to get to that centre point, that point of agreement straight away," he told Talk TV.ĭuring the strike, nurses will man picket lines at major NHS hospitals, including Guy's and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust in London, Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
He said paying nurses more "would mean taking money away from frontline services at a time when we are tackling record waiting lists as a result of the pandemic."Ĭlick to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcastsīut pressure is mounting on the government to find a compromise on pay, with former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry saying it "is going to have to improve its offer". "Nevertheless, the NHS is open and patients should continue to seek urgent medical care - and attend appointments - unless they've been contacted by the NHS." Mr Barclay added: "My number one priority is to keep patients safe - 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. The health secretary said nurses were "incredibly dedicated to their job" and that it was "deeply regrettable some union members are going ahead with strike action". And it has warned strike action may need to continue into January if the government does not re-negotiate on pay. The RCN has also raised the issue of huge staff vacancies in the NHS, with 47,000 nurse roles empty in England alone. Royal College of Nursing leader Pat Cullen says the government's 'turned its back' on nurses "My plea to patients is to know that this strike is for you too - it's about waiting lists, treatments that are cancelled year round and the very future of the NHS."
"Nursing staff on picket lines is a sign of failure on the part of governments. "It is a tragic first for nursing, the RCN and the NHS. "It has been a difficult decision taken by hundreds of thousands who begin to remove their labour in a bid to be heard, recognised and valued. Ms Cullen said: "Nurses are not relishing this, we are acting with a very heavy heart. Meanwhile, in Scotland, RCN members are being consulted on a revised pay offer from the Scottish government. However, Ms Cullen said Mr Barclay did everything but talk about pay during the meeting and he made her wait half an hour. "The three options open to us if we were to have to fund a higher pay rise is either to borrow the money, tax people more, or take that money from frontline staff." "We could go higher but we have got to find that money from somewhere - this isn't government money, this is taxpayers' money. "We could have ignored the pay review bodies recommendations and gone for a much lower pay rise but we did it higher.
Health minister Maria Caulfield told Sky News Health Secretary Steve Barclay did discuss pay with the RCN during a meeting on Monday, despite ministers over the weekend insisting it was not for the government to negotiate pay but for the independent pay review bodies.īut she added: "We can't go to 19%, that's unrealistic.
When it submitted the 5% figure to the independent pay review body in March, inflation was running at 7.5%.īut inflation has since soared, with RPI standing at 14.2% in September. The RCN has been calling for a pay rise of 19% - 5% above inflation - though it has indicated it would accept a lower offer. Image: Health Secretary Steve Barclay has been criticised by the head of the Royal College of Nursing
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