Always renowned to being the most noble of professions, nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on strike today, in the largest action of its kind in NHS history, all though, as they say, they will continue to provide "life-preserving" and some urgent care. Routine surgery, however, and other planned treatment is likely to be disrupted.
The RCN (Royal College of Nursing) said staff had been given no choice after ministers refused to reopen pay talks. The government said the RCN's 19% pay rise demand was unaffordable. The RCN union is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which was 14.2% in October.
The government has previously announced average pay increases of 4.5% for doctors and 4.75% for other NHS staff - including nurses - in England next year. Ministers agreed to these after a recommendation by the independent pay review bodies that make suggestions about NHS pay rises.
Under trade union laws, the RCN must ensure life-preserving care continues during the 12-hour strike. The action will involve nurses in around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales. Nurses are not striking in Scotland.
The union’s general secretary, Pat Cullen, urged the health secretary to hold talks with her on a one-to-one basis or negotiate through Acas, the independent organisation which mediates disputes between employers and workers as early as Monday morning. She said the union would not be "found wanting" in the negotiations but she said its position had not changed.
Asked if the union could accept a lower pay rise, Ms Cullen said: "Come to the table and let's have the discussion." She said her priority was making sure nurses could "make ends meet", adding: "It's not about lining their pockets with gold."
Nursing has - and always will be – the noble profession Nye Bevan set it out to be, in 1948, with him envisaging a high quality health service for all citizens in Britain, free at the point of need, especially so soon after the end of World War II. With demands so overwhelming back then, and a lack of will, and interest, from the natives to undertake any of its rolls, the then government extended their arms of need to the Caribbean, and other Commonwealth nations, to help staff the newly formed National Health Service.
The arrival of nurses and new trainees to help bolster the workforce in the UK was crucial. The level of care and treatment given to patients since has never been equalled anywhere in the world.
It then was like history repeating itself as, with today’s population far exceeding that of yesteryear, the call for medical staff from other countries helped keep the NHS on its feet – until the government’s Brexit meant that an overwhelming number of foreign staff were forced to leave their long-standing positions in the service – leaving those not affected to make up the slack.
Now that the migrants were thrown out during the pandemic, where are they now? Without nurses at the ‘coal-front’ when the government pays their demand, where will that leave Bevan’s – neh, Britain’s – greatest ever created?
This winter, a number of other major health unions, including Unison, the GMB, Unite the Union and the Royal College of Midwives, have also voted to strike in different parts of the UK, with a series of walkouts planned over Christmas and the new year.
