On Thursday, around 100,000 nurses launched a historic strike at 76 hospitals and health centres in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, demanding a 19% pay hike.
“What a tragic day. This is a tragic day for nursing, it is a tragic day for patients, patients in hospitals like this, and it is a tragic day for people of this society and for our NHS,” Royal College of Nursing (RCN) General Secretary Pat Cullen said, urging the government to “do the decent thing” and resolve the pay dispute.
Today our members' made history.
— The RCN (@theRCN) December 15, 2022
To all those who joined picket lines and stood in solidarity with nursing staff, thank you.
Until governments do the right thing by the profession and our patients, our fight continues.
#RCNStrike #FairPayForNursing #NursesStrike pic.twitter.com/S08y8rpfb0
Health Minister Maria Caulfield, a former nurse, acknowledged that salary is “an issue” for nurses, but said “realistically a 19% pay rise is not achievable.” “At the moment, we just don’t have £10 billion ($12.2 billion) pounds to give that 19% increase,” she told ITV News, admitting that it is a “difficult” issue for the government. However, she pointed out that they were the only public sector department to receive a 3% pay hike in 2021.
Similarly, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said nurses are “incredibly dedicated to their job” and “it is deeply regrettable some union members are going ahead with strike action.”
On our first day of strike action, public support for a pay rise for nursing has been immense – and new polling confirms the huge support from people all over the country. The public know when we speak, we speak for patients. https://t.co/cypdOwv0Zd
— RCN Press Office (@RCN_Press) December 15, 2022
“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,” he highlighted, adding that 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.”
The strike resulted in the cancellation of 70,000 appointments, procedures, and surgeries in the United Kingdom’s (UK) state-funded National Health Service (NHS). The RCN said emergency hospital care is still up-and-running and some “life-preserving” treatments related to chemotherapy, dialysis, and neonatal and pediatric intensive care units were excluded from the walkout.
Constant support for the nurses here in Liverpool. The city is behind them#RCNStrike pic.twitter.com/DeKnvzrkEA
— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) December 15, 2022
“We need to stand up for our health service, we need to find a way of addressing those over seven million people that are sitting on waiting lists, and how are we going to do that? By making sure we have got the nurses to look after our patients, not with 50,000 vacant posts, and with it increasing day by day,” Cullen asserted.
Nevertheless, Barclay emphasised that the government had followed the July recommendation of the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which said that NHS staff should receive a £1,400 ($1,707) hike and more for the most experienced nurses. The body made the recommendation based on the need to recruit staff, funding available for the NHS, and the government’s 2% inflation target. However, currently, the inflation rate is over 14%.
"Our nurses do a hugely important job and I deeply regret that a number of nurses are striking today."@SteveBarclay visited Chelsea and Westminster Hospital earlier to meet nurses and hear about the pressures they face. pic.twitter.com/6m7gLi8Rao
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) December 15, 2022
Keeping this in mind, former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry noted that the government “is going to have to improve its offer.”
“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.
Likewise, another Tory leader, Dr. Dan Poulter, a former health minister and also an NHS doctor, called on Barclay to rethink. Though he admitted that the RCN’s demand for a rise of 5% above inflation was “unrealistic,” he stressed that the government should “improve on the current offer on the table for nurses,” arguing that there is a “good economic case” to do so.
Blaming nurses, blaming patients, blaming anyone but himself!
— Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP (@TanDhesi) December 14, 2022
But the Prime Minister needs to get a grip, because #nurses being forced to strike in the UK for the first time in over a century is a badge of shame for this Government.#PMQs
“Suppressing pay well below the rate of inflation will encourage more NHS staff to do less contracted hours and either work as expensive agency or locum staff or to leave the NHS to work elsewhere – perhaps for private healthcare providers, both of which cost the NHS money,” he asserted.
Nursing union leaders did offer to halt the strikes and also agreed on a lower pay hike in case the government was willing to restart negotiations. However, earlier this week, a meeting between the two sides resulted in a stalemate, with the RCN accusing Secretary Barclay of “belligerence” and having “too little to say.” In fact, Cullen revealed that Barclay has refused to talk about the pay dispute, warning, “What it is going to do is continue with days like this.”
This militant Tory Govt has taken a scorched-earth approach to industrial relations, blocking the negotiations on a fair deal for staff that were the one way to avoid these strikes.
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) December 15, 2022
The public needs a Govt that leads not divides. 3/3
The second day of strikes is scheduled for 20 December, unless there is a breakthrough in talks. In fact, NHS Employers, representing all health trusts in England on staff’s terms and conditions, warned that the RCN is likely to strike for longer at more places, and disrupt more NHS services next month if the government fails to reach a new agreement.
Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed called it “shocking” that Barclay “refused” to discuss the “crisis” with the nurses.
“So, in a very real sense, the strikes happening today are Steve Barclay and Rishi Sunak strikes because the nurses gave them a way out and they simply refused it,” he remarked, adding that the Labour Party would help make the NHS “work better for less,” thus resulting in “fair pay rises.”
The health service strikes in Wales are the First Minister’s strikes.
— Andrew RT Davies (@AndrewRTDavies) December 13, 2022
He likes to pretend he can’t make an offer to nurses and ambulance workers without more UK government money.
So how have Scotland done it?
He’s made a political decision to not make an better offer.
In a similar vein, Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer slammed British Prime Minister (PM) Sunak for the nursing strike during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, calling the strike “a badge of shame for this government.”
Welsh ministers revealed that they were unable to hold any discussions without extra funding from the UK government. In Scotland, the RCN’s strike was paused following a new proposal of more than £2,200 ($2,679) a year for most NHS staff. Nurses are slated to vote on it, with results due next week.
This is only the second time that the RCN has conducted a strike action in its 106-year history. In fact, it had a no-strike policy until 1995. However, in 2014, nurses walked out in England over a pay dispute and then again in 2019 in Northern Ireland.
All of this contributes to the unsustainable pressure that is forcing so many nurses to leave the profession.
— Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) December 15, 2022
Additionally, many other major health unions, including Unison, the GMB, Unite the Union, and the Royal College of Midwives, have planned to strike across the UK over Christmas and the new year.
The nursing strike comes against the backdrop of increasing discontent among the public workforce. Ambulance, postal and rail workers, bus drivers, and airport baggage handlers are all striking this month. In addition, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union is scheduled to conduct a two-day strike on Friday and Saturday, thereby paralysing services in Scotland and Wales.