NHS workers across Nottinghamshire could go on strike as the organisation's biggest union begins balloting members. Unison is asking 350,000 staff across England Wales and Northern Ireland to vote in favour of walking out in a dispute over pay.
This includes thousands of staff, including nurses, midwives, paramedics and porters, across the healthcare system in Nottinghamshire. The Royal College of Nursing, which has 300,000 members across the country, is also in the process of balloting its members.
The government has urged workers to "carefully consider" the potential impacts on patients. Unison is demanding a pay increase that better protects staff against inflation and ensures workers stay in the NHS.
Read more: Hospitals face nurse walkout as union ballots members on strike action
Hospitals such as Queen's Medical Centre, City Hospital and King's Mill Hospital, would be among the places affected. Shantalee Mullings, Unison branch secretary at Nottingham University Hospitals, said: “For years we have had below inflation increases and it’s taken its toll with surveys showing large numbers of our members using foodbanks and thousands of vacancies remaining unfilled.
"A decent pay offer would help tackle the health service’s recruitment and retention crisis.” Researchers from London Economics, commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing, found that nurses work the equivalent of one day a week for free.
They found that in real terms, based on a five-day week, the salary of an experienced nurse has fallen by 20 percent. Unison East Midlands regional organiser Dave Ratchford added: “Enough really is enough. If the government are serious about saving the economy, they will pay NHS workers a decent wage.
"Instead of money getting squirrelled away in an offshore bank account, it will go to hardworking health workers who will go out and spend it on British goods and services which will kickstart the economy again." A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are giving over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year, as recommended by the independent NHS Pay Review Body, on top of 3% last year when pay was frozen in the wider public sector.
“Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.” Unison's ballot closes on 27 November.
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