Nurses across Northern Ireland strike over pay and safe staffing levels
Nurses across Northern Ireland are taking to the picket lines over pay and safe staffing levels.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) strike is the second in three years in Northern Ireland, and the first involving nursing staff from England and Wales.
A second strike is planned for next Tuesday.
A number of areas, including emergency departments, will be exempt from the RCN walk out.
It comes after health workers from three of Northern Ireland's largest trade unions - Unison, Nipsa and GMB - took part in a 24-hour strike on Monday in the fight for better pay and conditions.
The RCN described taking part in the industrial action "with heavy hearts", but insisted they feel they have been "left with no choice".
There will be picket lines outside every hospital in Northern Ireland.
The Department of Health has warned that the action will inevitably have an impact on an already fragile health service, while the Western Health Trust has announced that hundreds of appointments will be postponed on Thursday.
The RCN said its members voted unanimously to take action earlier this year in response to an inadequate pay award that is well below inflation.
Rita Devlin, director of the RCN in Northern Ireland said none of their members wants to be in this position.
"I am absolutely clear that no member of nursing staff wants to be in this position but we have been left with no choice but to take action," she said.
"As we have seen this week, all areas of health care are under enormous pressure.
"Those working in the service are the same staff that have just carried us through a pandemic and are now being expected to deal with unsafe staffing levels, leaving them unable to provide the care for patients that they want to.
"We simply cannot continue like this for much longer."
Ms Devlin said following a pay award last week, nurses in Northern Ireland are around 20% worse off in real terms compared to 10 years ago.
She said the pay situation is a "key factor" in workforce vacancies, saying there are almost 3,000 unfilled nursing posts in the HSC (health and social care) sector across Northern Ireland.
The Department of Health said it "fully understands the frustration and deep concern of staff".
The department said intensive work is ongoing to mitigate the impact on patients where possible.
"There has been constructive partnership working between the RCN and the Chief Nursing Officer and HSC trust directors of nursing on patient safety issues, including derogations from strike action to maintain critical services," they said.
"However, as the department has previously stated, already fragile services will inevitably be further impaired by industrial action."
The department voiced "particular concern" at the cumulative impact of repeated strike days, at a time when it described the health service as "facing what many regard as the most challenging winter in its history".
"The industrial dispute is a national dispute which is only resolvable at national level. Northern Ireland has a policy of pay parity with England for nurses and other HSC workers covered by the Agenda for Change framework," they said.
"The Department of Health remains extremely concerned at the scale of the current pressures on health and social care services - and the impact this is having on patients, service users, carers and staff.
"The challenges being faced here are mirrored in neighbouring jurisdictions.
"It is the reality that there are no quick or simple solutions."