First Minister Mark Drakeford has said the Welsh Government cannot afford to part with the money being requested of them by nurses in Wales. Nurses across Wales - as well as in England and Northern Ireland - have been on strike over pay and conditions on Thursday with another walkout planned for Tuesday.
An offer of between 4% and 5.5% is currently on the table, while nurses are asking for a 19% increase - around 8% above the latest inflation figure. Scotland has so far avoided nurses’ strike action with a better pay offer of 7.5% for NHS staff there.
In an interview with BBC Wales on Sunday, the First Minister told the programme that his government’s hands were tied because he can’t “grow the envelope” of money afforded to him in Westminster. He also suggested that nurses do not reasonably expect to get the offer the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is proposing.
