NHS nurses are set to carry out two days of strike action.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which represents two thirds of NHS nurses, will stage its first ever national walkout on December 15 and 20 as Health Secretary Steve Barclay refuses to even discuss pay. The industrial action will happen between 8am to 8pm on both days.
The union warned they have had “enough of being taken for granted”. The union, which has more than 300,000 members, will announce next week which hospitals will be affected when formal notifications are submitted.
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RCN general secretary Pat Cullen condemned Tory ministers for having “chosen strike action” by stubbornly refusing to talk to nurses. Today she said it has been "a number of weeks" since she met Mr Barclay and he was refusing to discuss pay. She said: " They have the power and the means to stop this by opening serious talks that address our dispute."
She told BBC Breakfast : "Our economists have worked hard on our figures. If Mr Barclay wishes to meet with me and get round a table and stop the spin and start to speak, he can avert these strikes. My door is wide open, night and day. I will make myself available as will my team on behalf of our nursing staff. That option isn't open to me at this point in time, and consequently he has chosen strikes over speaking to me."
But a source close to Mr Barclay last night said: “We are not negotiating on pay.”
A nursing leader apologised to patients for any disruption during the industrial action planned for next month, but said it is necessary for things to change for the better. Royal College of Nursing England director Patricia Marquis said the public are generally supportive of nursing staff who have decided to strike.
Asked what her message is to patients whose operations or treatments will be cancelled because of the strike, she told Sky News: "We're doing this for you. This is about nurses standing up for themselves but also, critically, for patients.
"We know that the public support nursing staff in general and we know they support us through this action. So we want you to come on this journey with us. We are sorry for any disruption that's caused but actually, unless we do this, we don't see any prospects of things changing any time soon."
The strikes, which will take place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, are the biggest in the RCN’s 106-year history.
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