Northern Ireland nurses have voted “overwhelmingly” to go on strike, it has been announced today.
In statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, the Royal College of Nursing confirmed nursing staff will walk out over “pay levels and patient safety concerns”.
They will join colleagues “across the UK at the majority of NHS employers” after results of the RCN’s first ever strike ballot across the UK were published.
Read more: No "quick fix" for recurring Northern Ireland hospital pressures, Minister says
The nurses’ union said workers are angry at falling staffing levels due to thousands of unfilled posts and that their wages mean some experienced nurses are 20 per cent worse off in real-terms compared to ten years earlier.
Locally, RCN reps say “nurses in Northern Ireland are once again the lowest paid in the UK thanks to the current political situation”. Pay parity with the UK has been an ongoing bugbear with NI NHS staff.
The RCN says the “first period of industrial action can be expected before the end of the year”. Nursing staff were balloted following NHS Agenda for Change pay announcements earlier this year which the RCN says left “experienced nurses 20 per cent worse off in real-terms compared to ten years earlier”.
In a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, they added: “Poor pay is a key contributing factor to acute staff shortages across the UK, affecting patient safety. There are tens of thousands of nursing vacancies across the UK and in the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register. In Northern Ireland there are 2,493 nursing vacancies in the HSC and a similar number in the independent sector. The Fair Pay for Nursing campaign is calling for a pay rise of 5% above inflation (measured by RPI).”
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: “Anger has become action - our members are saying enough is enough. The voice of nursing in the UK is strong and I will make sure it is heard. Our members will no longer tolerate a financial knife-edge at home and a raw deal at work.
“Ministers must look in the mirror and ask how long they will put nursing staff through this. While we plan our strike action, next week’s Budget is the UK government’s opportunity to signal a new direction with serious investment. Across the country, politicians have the power to stop this now and at any point.
“This action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses. Standards are falling too low and we have strong public backing for our campaign to raise them. This winter, we are asking the public to show nursing staff you are with us.”
Rita Devlin, Director of the RCN in Northern Ireland added: “Nurses in Northern Ireland have today spoken loudly and clearly to tell our politicians that we can no longer tolerate the unacceptable and at times unsafe conditions that nursing staff are putting up with, day in day out. This is not a decision that has been taken lightly but it is clear that our members feel they have no other choice but to take action on behalf of their patients.
“Three years ago we were preparing for the first ever strike action undertaken by the RCN across the UK. None of us thought we would be back in the same position so quickly and many of members will be very dismayed that we are here again. However, a key part of being a nurse is to advocate on behalf of patients and this decision is undoubtedly based on the fact that nurses are reporting that they simply cannot give the level of care and treatment to patients that is required.
“Low pay has made it very difficult to retain nursing staff and if it is not addressed quickly, we can only expect conditions to deteriorate further. In addition, nurses in Northern Ireland are once again the lowest paid in the UK thanks to the current political situation. This is completely unfair and has only served to make our profession feel more undervalued than ever before.”
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