Nurses will conduct a national two-day strike at more hospitals in January after the Tories ignored pleas to negotiate over pay, a major union has announced.
The 48 hour walk-out in England from January 18 will be an escalation of the bitter industrial dispute by the Royal College of Nursing after a decade of real terms pay cuts for workers.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has twice met the union and refused to talk about pay and the RCN says it must be improved because “staff shortages and low pay make patient care unsafe”.
The strikes will take place at more NHS employers in England than earlier this month - increasing by 25% from 44 to 55 trusts.
In total 70 NHS employers in England will see nursing strikes.
It comes after the RCN staged its first nationwide walkout in its 106-year history on December 15 and 20 in their dispute over pay and working conditions.
Last night it was also announced that ambulance workers who are members of Unison will walkout again for two 24-hour periods on January 11 and 23.
GMB union has suspended planned strike action by ambulance workers on December 28 but it expected to join Unison members on January 11.
General Secretary of the RCN Pat Cullen said: "The Government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January.
"I do not wish to prolong this dispute but the Prime Minister has left us with no choice."
She added: "The public support has been heart-warming and I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing to do for patients and the future of the NHS.
"The voice of nursing will not be ignored. Staff shortages and low pay make patient care unsafe - the sooner ministers come to the negotiating table, the sooner this can be resolved.
"I will not dig in, if they do not dig in".
The Government has fanned the flames of the industrial dispute this week when Mr Barclay accused striking ambulance worker unions of making “a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients”.
Unison’s latest planned strikes for 24 hours are an escalation as its strike on Wednesday was for 12 hours.
Two one-day RCN strikes were held in England, Northern Ireland and Wales on December 15 and 20.
In Scotland, RCN members this week voted to reject a revised NHS pay offer from the Scottish government.
Strike action had been paused pending the ballot’s outcome, but the RCN Scotland now will announce dates for strike action early in the new year.
It comes as NHS leaders warn the health service is facing its “darkest ever” winter amid a staffing crisis and surging seasonal infections including flu and Covid.
NHS workers have been given below-inflation pay deals for all but two of the last 12 years.
RCN submitted representations to the pay review process that a deal 5% above inflation was necessary. It has since indicated it is willing to negotiate on this.
RPI inflation was at around 7% when it first called for the deal but is now at 14%.
Commenting on strikes in the Tory-supporting Telegraph this week, Mr Barclay said: “The British people would not forgive if politicians like me spent every single winter frozen in negotiations with trade unions, rather than getting on and solving the very real challenges we face as a country.
“It is a dangerous trap we have been determined to avoid.
“Strikes are in no one’s interests – least of all patients. The only way forward is to keep talking.”
It also came as the General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - representing civil servants - warned of a "huge escalation" of strike action in the New Year if ministers fail to enter negotiations over pay.
He said some of his members living in poverty were being forced to skip meals and use food banks amid the cost-of-living crisis.
As Border Force staff held their first day of industrial action on Friday, Mark Serwotka told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hoped the Government "do the right thing and get around the negotiating table and put some money upfront".
He added: "If not, we are raising money, we have a strike fund that means we can sustain this action. Our strike mandate lasts right up until May.
"We will be supporting this action up to May and we would re-ballot again if we have to.
"I think in January what you will see is a huge escalation of this action in the Civil Service and across the rest of our economy unless the Government gets around the negotiating table."
Full list of NHS employers where strike action will take place
East Midlands
NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB (Joined Up Care Derbyshire)
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust
Eastern
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Mid and South Essex ICB
NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB
NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB
London
Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
NHS South West London ICB
North West
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB
St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Northern
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
North of England CSU (NECS)
South East
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Kent and Medway ICB
NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Solent NHS Trust
South West
Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
NHS Dorset ICB (Our Dorset)
West Midlands
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust
NHS Black Country ICB
Midlands and Lancashire CSU
Yorkshire and the Humber
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
NHS West Yorkshire ICB
National employers
NHS Resolution
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)
