Nurses strikes continue continue until Christmas if the Government dies not budge on its pay offer
The leader of the Nurses Union Pat Cullen told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that there could be strike action until Christmas if the government doesn’t budge further on its pay offer.
Strikes are already planned for the end of the month and the beginning of May aflyer nurses rejected a 5 per cent pay offer in a vote announced on Friday and the union says that if the next ballot is successful it could extend well into the festive season too.
Meanwhile reports this morning say the Royal College of Nursing to hold what a single national vote, rather than ballots in each individual trust as it did last October.
That could result in twice as many trusts being hit by industrial action.
She also told the programme that things had escalated because the “government has not listened.”
However she insisted nurses would continue to ensure “patient safety was at the core of all decision making” and that they would leave the picket lines if there was a major incident.
Speaking on Sky News, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said it was hard to see how either the so-called derogation of cover by striking nurses, or threat of coordinated action “wouldn’t endanger patient safety and dignity.”
