Patients can expect a bank holiday-level of service in hospitals when nurses go on strike later this week, the head of the NHS Confederation has said.
Matthew Taylor, who speaks for healthcare systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said trade unions are committed to maintaining emergency and critical care services and he was “reasonably confident that we won’t see severe patient harm”.
However, he said there would disruption to planned care, such as non-emergency operations and outpatient appointments.
Nurses are set to walk out on Thursday after talks with the Government broke down on Monday night, with thousands of appointments expected to be cancelled in the next few days.
The head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, said strikes would go ahead after Health Secretary Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay.
The Government said it would continue to engage on non-pay related issues and has said the pay rise demanded by the RCN – 5% above inflation, so 19.2% – is unaffordable.
Ms Cullen has hinted that nurses may have been willing to accept a lower offer.
We use the phrase routine procedures but I know that if you're a patient and you've been waiting some time to see somebody, it doesn't feel routine at all to have that cancelled— Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation
Mr Taylor told Sky News there were conversations at both a national and local level “to try to protect life and limb” on strike days “and it’s important that those conversations continue”.
He added: “It’s disappointing that it seems that the meeting between the Secretary of State and the RCN has not made any progress.
“I’m reasonably confident that we won’t see severe patient harm as a consequence of this action, but what we are going to see is cancellations of appointments and procedures.
“We’ve taken steps to make sure that patients are aware of those cancellations.
I think it's important to say that if we have no trade unions, no industrial action, there would still be a major issue around how we recruit, retain and motivate our staff - we have 130,000 vacancies— Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation
“We use the phrase routine procedures but I know that if you’re a patient and you’ve been waiting some time to see somebody, it doesn’t feel routine at all to have that cancelled.
“And we’re very sorry that that has to take place.
“But I think what you’re going to see really is a kind of bank holiday level service during a week day and, with the goodwill of the trade unions, we can avoid severe patient harm.”
Asked if the Government was right to keep to its position on pay, Mr Taylor said: “I think it’s important to say that if we have no trade unions, no industrial action, there would still be a major issue around how we recruit, retain and motivate our staff – we have 130,000 vacancies.
“So, regardless in a sense of what the trade unions are saying, we have a real staffing crisis in the health service.
“We’ve seen some progress in Scotland. It’s not for me as a representative of NHS, employers, leaders of the health service, to take sides in this – all we can do is encourage both sides to talk.”
He said next year there may be a more positive environment for negotiations, with inflation coming down and an NHS workforce plan in place.
“We’ve been calling for it for years, so we may have a more positive environment for negotiations next year,” he said.
“I would still at the very last minute, this late last hour, I would still encourage both sides to continue talking and to try to avoid action.”
On pressures in the health service. Mr Taylor said the NHS was “suffering essentially from a gap between the capacity that we have and the demand that we face. That capacity gap is difficult in the middle of summer, it’s very difficult in winter.”
