Nurses at Teesside hospital trust set to join strike action in dispute over pay
Nurses at the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust look set to join planned strike action next week in an ongoing national dispute over pay.
The organisation, which runs the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, and Northallerton’s Friarage Hospital, wasn’t included in two strike dates which took place last month organised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
But the union has increased the number of trusts where its action is taking place, meaning, as things stand, South Tees will join 54 other trusts where RCN members will walk out on January 18 and 19.
The trust said anyone with a life-threatening emergency should still call 999.
It also advised that any patients whose appointment needed to be rescheduled as a result would be contacted, otherwise they should turn up as usual.
There has been speculation that the Government could make a one-off payment this winter to nurses to end the dispute.
But Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who met unions representing health workers on Monday, made no commitments over pay and instead reportedly raised the prospect of productivity and efficiency reforms which could top up a future pay offer.
Nurses have been offered an average pay rise of 4.75% covering the 2022/23 financial year.
The RCN claims this is insufficient and the value of salaries for experienced nurses are in fact 20% lower in real terms due to successive below inflation pay awards since 2010.
Its director of employment relations and legal services, Joanne Galbraith-Marten said ministers had a “distance to travel” to avert next week’s planned strikes.
Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham said: “The fault for industrial action rests at the feet of successive Tory Prime Ministers and Health Secretaries who have repeatedly failed our health service, not our dedicated NHS workers.
“Ministers could avoid strikes – and have been given ample opportunity to do so by trade unions – by getting round the table with union representatives and carrying out meaningful negotiations with them on pay and conditions.”
But Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Simon Clarke, for the Conservatives, said the Government had already honoured an independent pay review body’s recommendations in full.
Mr Clarke said continued strike action in the health service risked causing chaos when hospitals were struggling with a winter wave of flu and covid-19.
He said: “Every nurse has already been offered a pay increase of at least £1,400 and you do not solve inflation by offering huge pay increases that only worsen the problem and which hard-pressed taxpayers have to fork out for while receiving nothing comparable themselves.“
RCN regional representative Kevin Terry told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that RCN members across the country had voted in favour of strike action, but it was “only bringing out different groups at a time”.
He said: “We have done it this way, not least for strategic reasons, but we are also fully aware of the impact that strike action has.”
Mr Terry said the union could not put a figure on how many nurses at individual trusts would take part in strike action, but it would be announcing the precise locations of picket lines in the coming days.
Hospitals previously affected by strike action have been described as offering a weekend, or Bank Holiday level of service with routine care being affected.
However critical services and A&E have continued to operate as normal.