York to be hit by next wave of strikes by nurses

York nurses will be among those to walk out in the next wave of strike action.

If no settlement to the dispute is found, members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will walk out on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 January in an escalation of the pay dispute with the government.

And, unlike the first strikes earlier this month, nurses at the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will be among those taking actionz.x

That trust runs York Hospital. They will also strike at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

Altogether 55 NHS trusts will be affected, up from 44 in the last round of action.

The news comes after Unison said its workers at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service would be among those striking again on Wednesday 11 and Monday 23 January.

Meanwhile, the planned post-Christmas strike on 28 December by ambulance workers in the GMB union has been suspended.

The RCN said it has repeatedly invited ministers to hold talks on NHS pay.

But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted that refusing to negotiate on public sector pay is the “right thing” in the long term.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the strikes had already caused disruption, with 25,000 rescheduled procedures and “much longer” response times for ambulance calls.

Heart-warming support

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: “The Government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January.

“I do not wish to prolong this dispute but the Prime Minister has left us with no choice.

“The public support has been heart-warming and I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing to do for patients and the future of the NHS.

“The voice of nursing will not be ignored. Staff shortages and low pay make patient care unsafe – the sooner ministers come to the negotiating table, the sooner this can be resolved. I will not dig in, if they don’t dig in.”

Ms Cullen has said the union’s demand for a 19% rise – dismissed by ministers as “unaffordable” – is simply a “starting point” and that she would put any new offer to her members.

But despite some Tories calling for a rethink the Government has repeatedly refused to stray from the advice of the independent pay review body for a £1,400 raise, which is estimated to be an average of a 4.3% raise for qualified staff.