Category Archives: Nursing

Revealed: cabinet split over NHS pay disputes piles pressure on Sunak

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Health secretary Steve Barclay urges unions to lobby PM over improved pay offer for striking nurses and ambulance workers

The health and social care secretary Steve Barclay has privately urged trade unions to help him make the case to the Treasury and No 10 for extra money for nurses, ambulance workers and other NHS staff in an extraordinary twist to the escalating crisis over health service strikes, the Observer can reveal.

A serious cabinet split has opened up, with Barclay now wanting more money for all NHS staff except doctors – while Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, are refusing to budge from their insistence that no more can be offered.

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Sunak invites unions to talks on Monday as senior Tory calls on government to improve pay offer to nurses– UK politics live

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PM offers no hint he will compromise on pay offers as former cabinet minister says nurses key to dealing with NHS pressures

The journalist interviewing Rishi Sunak this morning did not press Sunak on excess deaths because he needed to ask some questions about Prince Harry’s memoir. But Sunak would not go near the topic.

Asked how he felt seeing the royal family “torn apart” by these claims and revelations, Sunak replied:

As you would expect, it is not appropriate for me to comment on matters to do with the royal family.

I wouldn’t comment on matters to do with the royal family. I would just say I am enormously grateful to our armed forces for the incredible job they do in keeping us all safe. We’re all very fortunate for their service.

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Labour dismisses Rishi Sunak’s five new pledges as mostly ‘so easy it would be difficult not to achieve them’ – as it happened

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Prime minister urges public to judge him on whether he delivers on new pledges but Labour says most ‘were happening anyway’. This blog is now closed

Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, has issued a statement welcoming the government’s proposal to abandon the privatisation of Channel (without actually putting it in those terms). She says the government should never have floated the plan in the first place, and that it has been a “total distraction” for the broadcaster. She says:

The Conservatives’ vendetta against Channel 4 was always wrong for Britain, growth in our creative economy, and a complete waste of everyone’s time.

Our broadcasting and creative industries lead the world, yet this government has hamstrung them for the last year with the total distraction of Channel 4 privatisation.

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Strikes, elections and Dominic Raab: Rishi Sunak’s headaches to come in 2023

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PM has reinstated ‘boring government’ but smooth relations with backbenchers are unlikely to last

At the end of one of the most tumultuous years of politics in decades, Rishi Sunak is confident he has successfully managed to calm Tory MPs and – in the words of one senior aide – “bring back boring government”.

He has sought to kick some controversial pieces of legislation into the long grass, performed quick U-turns and managed to satiate a parliamentary party with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for regicide.

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Ambulance strike: NHS leaders urge public to avoid risky activity

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Bodies representing NHS care in England also call for Rishi Sunak intervention but PM refuses to budge on pay

NHS leaders have urged the public to avoid risky activity on Wednesday for fear they may be left helpless and unable to reach A&E during the ambulance strike.

The industrial action by staff across England and Wales comes as the ongoing pay dispute between ministers and NHS workers looks poised to descend into an increasingly bitter and disruptive war of attrition that could go on for months.

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Rishi Sunak warns NHS strikes could go on for months as he rules out reopening pay offers – live

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Prime minister issues warning as nurses take action again today, with ambulance staff striking on Wednesday

In his interviews this morning Will Quince, the health minister, said that the military personnel who are helping out when ambulance staff are on strike tomorrow will not be allowed to turn on blue lights when driving ambulances, or drive them through red lights. “They will be there to drive ambulances in a support capacity for individual trusts,” he said.

At the health committee hearing Dr John Martin, president of the College of Paramedics, told MPs that ambulance staff are now having to deal with “a sicker population who are calling us more often” than they were in the past. But, despite that, ambulance staff were seeing fewer patients per shift, he said, because of the delays getting people into hospital because of delayed discharges.

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Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland strike for second day

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Tuesday’s strike goes ahead as Royal College of Nursing highlights low pay

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland went on strike on Tuesday in an ongoing dispute with the government about pay and concerns about patient safety.

Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) took part after it balloted its members in October. It has said that low pay is the cause of chronic understaffing that is putting patients at risk and leaving NHS staff overworked.

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Nurses pledge tougher new strikes as NHS crisis deepens

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Nursing union gives ministers until Thursday to open pay talks as first signs emerge of bid to end dispute and prevent NHS collapse

• How will NHS strikes affect you?

Union leaders threatened on Saturday night to order a fresh wave of more severe strikes in the new year in which nurses would offer “less generous” support inside hospitals, in a dramatic escalation of their pay dispute with the government.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), in a marked hardening of its line, said there would be “more hospitals and more nurses taking part than at present” in strikes throughout January, unless ministers backed down by Thursday.

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Hot drinks and public sympathy for nurses on the picket lines

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For many striking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, staff shortages are a bigger issue than pay

In many professions, working a 14-hour day with no break would be unthinkable, but for many nurses on freezing picket lines across the country on Thursday it is increasingly becoming the norm.

“It’s tough at the moment,” said Ella Savage, a children’s specialist nurse at Leeds General Infirmary, where about 200 nurses were gathered at one of 125 Royal College of Nursing (RCN) pickets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Nurses will strike this week in UK after talks with health secretary stall

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Royal College of Nursing leader criticises ‘belligerence’ in meeting with Steve Barclay at which ministers refused to discuss pay

Nurses’ strikes will go ahead this week after a meeting between the union and the health secretary ended in deadlock, with the Royal College of Nursing condemning ministers’ “belligerence” for refusing to discuss pay.

Six hundred military personnel from all three armed forces will start training to drive ambulances to cover for striking NHS workers across the UK later this month. A further 150 are being readied to act as logistical support, defence sources said, with training for both groups to start “shortly”.

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RCN accuse government of ‘belligerence’ as talks to avert strike action fail; Wales strikes to go ahead – as it happened

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Royal College of Nursing says Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay at meeting on Monday; Welsh nurses to strike after last-minute talks fail. This blog is now closed

Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, told ITV this morning that there was no point talking to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, if he was not prepared to discuss pay. She said

What I’m saying … to the health secretary this morning, is if you don’t want to speak to me directly about nurses’ pay, we have engaged with the conciliation service Acas, they can do that through Acas, but our door is absolutely wide open and it appears at the minute that theirs is totally shut …

Fundamentally, I need to get to a table and talk to them about pay. This isn’t just me, it’s the 320,000 nurses that voted for strike action … They voted through an independent ballot that we carried out and surely to goodness you couldn’t look at one of those people this morning in the eye and say: ‘You’re not worth an extra brown penny’. In my mind they absolutely are.

I think it’s a very challenging international picture. About a third of the world’s economies are predicted to be in recession, either this year or next.

We’re no different in this country and truthfully, it is likely to get worse before it gets better, which makes it even more difficult when we have big public sector strikes going on at the moment.

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Exclusive: health unions offer to pause NHS strikes if government join pay talks

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Royal College of Nursing and Unison call on health secretary to negotiate with them to avoid action at Christmas and new year

Health unions made a dramatic offer on Saturday night to suspend a wave of planned strikes that threatens to cripple the NHS over Christmas and the new year if ministers agree to open serious discussions over pay.

The moves by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the country’s biggest union, Unison, are the first signs of flexibility by either side in a dispute that has been deadlocked for weeks.

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Nurses’ union leader Pat Cullen: ‘I follow through on what I believe in’

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The RCN boss poised to lead the first NHS-wide strike reflects on her long-established readiness to tackle perceived injustices

Pat Cullen tells a story that is very revealing about the character of the woman who is about to lead Britain’s nurses into their first-ever NHS-wide strike – herself.

Almost 40 years ago, back in 1983, Cullen was an 18-year-old trainee nurse at Holywell psychiatric hospital in Antrim, Northern Ireland. She was appalled that under its “token economy system” staff punished patients whose behaviour proved difficult by taking away their personal possessions – sweets, cigarettes, washbags or blankets.

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Ministers accused of spoiling for a fight with nurses over pay

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While health secretary Steve Barclay says he will not negotiate, unions suggest the compromise reached in Scotland could help avert strikes

Ministers were under intense pressure last night to open new pay talks that could avert a devastating series of NHS strikes as health unions suggested a deal could be struck if both sides were willing to negotiate and compromise.

Amid claims from Labour and from NHS sources that ministers appeared to be playing politics and deliberately “spoiling for a fight”, union leaders strongly suggested that an improved, but still sub-inflation, offer similar to that made to Scottish health unions at the end of last month by the Holyrood government – which has led to strike threats being lifted north of the border – could help break the deadlock elsewhere in the UK.

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Who are the female union leaders overseeing UK strike action?

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Four women at some of the biggest unions are on the frontline of the fight for better pay and conditions

Christina McAnea is the general secretary of Unison, the UK’s biggest union. Brought up on Glasgow’s Drumchapel estate, McAnea left school at 16 to join the civil service, before going to university at the age of 22 and earning a degree in English and history.

A longtime union official, the no-nonsense McAnea has couched Unison’s demands for better pay and conditions for NHS workers, who include paramedics and ambulance staff, as a battle for the future of the health service.

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Minister becomes eighth Tory MP to announce they are stepping down at next election – UK politics live

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Dehenna Davison, seen as one of the rising stars of the Conservative party, has announced she is standing down at the next election

Downing Street has confirmed that the inquiry into bullying allegations about Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, is being expanded to cover claims relating to his period as Brexit secretary, my colleague Pippa Crerar reports.

The inquiry was originally set up to consider two complaints, relating to his time as justice secretary and foreign secretary. But at the Downing Street lobby briefing a No 10 spokesperson said:

I can confirm that the prime minister has now asked the investigator to add a further formal complaint relating to conduct at the Department for Exiting the European Union and to establish the facts in line with the existing terms of reference.

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Nurses to strike for two days as December disruption deepens

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Royal College of Nursing announces unprecedented action, likely to to be first in a series of strikes by NHS staff over winter

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced its members will stage national strikes – the first in its 106-year history – on 15 and 20 December, with action expected to last for 12 hours on both days.

The unprecedented industrial action will seriously disrupt care and is likely to be the first in a series of strikes over the winter and into the spring by NHS staff, including junior doctors and ambulance workers.

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Nurses across UK vote to go on strike for first time in dispute over pay

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NHS braces for prolonged period of industrial action by health workers over the winter and into next year

Nurses have voted to stage strikes across the UK for the first time in their history in pursuit of a better pay deal, in a move that will seriously disrupt NHS care.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Wednesday that nurses at many, but not all, hospitals and other places of NHS care would take industrial action before Christmas and could continue striking until next May.

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Plans in place to deal with strike action by UK’s nurses, government says

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Oliver Dowden says Department of Health has ‘well-oiled contingencies’ to manage impact of action

The government has said it has contingency plans for dealing with a strike by nurses amid the growing threat of industrial action in the NHS.

The Observer revealed on Sunday that the biggest nursing strike in NHS history could take place before Christmas after “large swathes of the country” voted for nationwide industrial action. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is due to announce the results of its ballot in the next few days.

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