The Prime Minister has been warned that fresh strike action will have a “significant impact” on the NHS which will cause a “much higher risk” for patients.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said that thousands of nurses and Unison members who cover ambulance services across the UK will all walk out.
Unison said the strike is a “significant escalation” in the bitter dispute over pay and conditions will see four English ambulance services, five NHS organisations which includes NHS Blood and Transplant will all walk out.
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Nick Hulme told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the planned strikes “will be very different and it’s clearly a much higher risk” than previous strikes, then warning there is “significant risk.”
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen was asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if she accepts that there will be a real risk to patients, she said, “What I accept is that there will be significant changes in the 48 hours. And of course there will continue to be extreme challenges.”
Cullen was then asked the question again, she responded, “What our patients are facing every day, in a depleted health service, a health service in crisis, poses significant risk and significant challenge.”
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said, “It’s time the Prime Minister ditched his do nothing strategy for dealing with escalating strikes across the NHS.
“Governments in other parts of the UK know what it takes to resolve disputes. Ministers in Scotland and Wales are talking to health unions and acting to boost pay for NHS staff this year.
“And Holyrood is really showing Westminster up. Health workers in Scotland have had a bigger pay rise this year and are set to get a decent wage increase in April following their Government’s latest offer.
“Sadly, health workers across England have been met with a wall of silence from Number 10. The Prime Minister stubbornly refuses to talk about pay, preferring to subject everyone to many months of disruption.
“The public must think the Westminster Government is living on another planet. They can see how talks in other parts of the UK have lifted the threat of strikes and cannot understand why the Prime Minister isn’t doing the same.
“Health staff want to go back to work, and the public wants an NHS capable of delivering quality care. The Prime Minister must roll up his sleeves, invite the unions into Downing Street and start the genuine pay talks that could end this damaging dispute.”
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