The Royal College of Nurses appears to have U-turned on its decision to allow no exemptions to hospitals during this weekend’s strike action, with nurses now due to work in an emergency capacity in dozens of hospitals across England.
Nurses will be working across several NHS trusts – including Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust, in London, and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust – in wards including intensive care and A&E. This is despite the RCN vowing when strike action was announced that exemptions would not be made for any hospitals.
The change in policy comes as one of England’s leading hospitals for children was granted exemptions from strike action after warning that the England-wide strike by NHS nurses would put the safety of ill children at risk.
Great Ormond Street hospital, in London, said on Friday it had serious concerns about its ability to provide safe levels of staffing for children under its care, while NHS leaders described the scale of the action as “exceptionally challenging”.
RCN members will stage a 28-hour stoppage from Sunday in its ongoing pay dispute with the government.
The RCN, which will strike from 8pm on Sunday until 11.59pm on Monday, had previously said it would not agree to derogations, which are broad areas of care where unions agree to provide staffing during industrial action.
But its leader, Pat Cullen, said mitigations were granted on Friday after a request from Great Ormond Street, and that nurses working at the hospital would “never ever” leave child patients at risk. She said the suggestion that mitigations had not been put in place were “factually incorrect”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Cullen said: “It is important for every member of the public and our patients that are listening to us this morning for us to say that it is not the case.
“All of the exemptions that Great Ormond Street requested of the Royal College of Nursing were granted earlier yesterday.”
Cullen said the protocol on exemptions required the RCN to pass its approval on to NHS England, which was then responsible for notifying the individual organisations. Any derogations sought by other organisations would be given “very careful consideration” to ensure critical areas of care could continue, she said.
The chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said this weekend’s action would be “the most dramatic strikes the RCN has staged so far”.
“Although the strike will be a day shorter than originally planned, disruption is still expected and so we hope that RCN representatives at local levels will allow their members to cross the picket line in the event of emergencies where life is at immediate risk.”
Great Ormond Street’s chief executive, Mat Shaw, had said: “We respect the right of our staff to take part in lawful industrial action, but after exhausting all options, at the moment we have serious concerns over how we will safely staff our hospital during the strike.
“There is nothing more important than the safety of our patients and so we have no choice but to declare a business continuity incident.”
It is understood the situation is under review following the RCN’s decision to grant exemptions on Friday evening.
NHS England has urged the public to use the health service wisely during the stoppage. It said emergency and urgent care would remain the priority, with people asked to use other services, such as pharmacies and 111 where possible.
The RCN’s plan to strike until 8pm on Tuesday was thwarted when the government secured a high court order on Thursday which ruled that any refusal to work that day would be illegal because the union’s strike mandate expired at midnight the day before.
