Nurses across Nottinghamshire are expected to walk out over pay after voting in favour of strikes. Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) which runs Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, will join workers at more than half of NHS trusts across the UK in taking industrial action.
Members of the union at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB and East Midlands Ambulance Service will also walk out. Staff at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, behind the King's Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals, voted against strike action.
RCN is asking for five percent above the RPI rate of inflation, which stands at 12 percent. The government, meanwhile, has said the decision to strike was “deeply regrettable”.
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All affected Nottinghamshire NHS trusts have been approached for comment by Nottinghamshire Live. Speaking previously, Ian Graham, chair of the RCN in the East Midlands, said: “When NHS nursing staff are having to forgo meals or stop paying into their pension so they can afford to clothe their children or travel to work, the time has come to say enough is enough.
"Ministers have refused to give NHS workers the pay rise they need and deserve despite employers sounding the alarm that more and more of their staff are leaving for better-paid jobs in shops, pubs and restaurants."
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We hugely value the hard work and dedication of our nurses, but it is deeply regrettable that some union members are considering this action. These are challenging times for everyone. I think you’ll know the RCN are asking for 17% pay rise. To deliver that for all staff … that would cost £9 billion. In the current climate that is simply not deliverable.”
However, in response an RCN spokesperson said: “This is gross scaremongering and many multiples of the accurate costs." It comes as the separate union Unison asks 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. Unison's ballot for industrial action closes on November 27.
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