RCN is striking, no cover for intensive care, cancer patients etc

Unison has accepted the latest pay deal however.

They have foxie and Unison recommended acceptance, the RCN has decided otherwise.

For a pay deal to be accepted by Unison there must have been some negotiation before hand, so I don't understand why you ask in your OP why the Government wont negotiate foxie.

There are about 100,000 nurses in Unison, and over 500,000 in the RCN.

I'm with Unite.... voting continues until 28.4.23....several other unions haven't announced their results either

Just pay them the same as Scotland, and B well get on with it!

Most reg nurses in the NHS, are represented by RCN, (which has a membership of 464K ) not Unison, so acceptance of the 5% + a one off has not been accepted by most qualified nurses. Unison represents some nurses but also a wide range of other NHS staff eg porters, HCAs, cleaners etc. A strike by Unison members would badly affect the running of any hospital but a strike by RCN members is as bad as the junior doctors strike, hence my comment about intensive care nurses etc.

Just to add, if an intensive care nurse or a cancer care nurse is on strike, who do you get to cover? If a porter is on strike or a cleaner (with all due respect to the valuable job they do) it is possible to find cover.

😲
Don’t get really ill in the next month or so.

Unite is the other big union. You'll find other Health Care professionals are in that, especially the Health Care Scientist.
Union representatives most of the those Lab staff, you definitely can't run a Hospital without those staff.
So it will be interesting to see what they say.

foxie48

Most reg nurses in the NHS, are represented by RCN, (which has a membership of 464K ) not Unison, so acceptance of the 5% + a one off has not been accepted by most qualified nurses. Unison represents some nurses but also a wide range of other NHS staff eg porters, HCAs, cleaners etc. A strike by Unison members would badly affect the running of any hospital but a strike by RCN members is as bad as the junior doctors strike, hence my comment about intensive care nurses etc.

Over half a million members in the RCN now foxie48, membership is increasing year on year.
I don’t know how many are in Unite, mental health nurses tended to favour Unite where I was, general nurses went for either RCN or Unison.

Casdon Thanks for that. Some posters seem not to have realised the implication of RCN nurses going on strike again and the Junior doctors also striking. This is extremely serious for everyone. In an article in the Guardian yesterday Stephen Dorrell was urging the Govt to get back to the table to negotiate, so even a Tory former Health Minister can see how dangerous this situation is getting.

The government need to pay these professionals properly. Their pay has been held down since 2008. It’s not only medical staff, it’s other public sector workers too. Private sector pay has risen far more over those years. As a teacher, I remember when teacher’s pay was totally frozen for three solid years. That would have been between the years 2008 and 2012 because I retired in 2012. Of course that had a knock on effect on my professional pension and that effort will be for the rest of my life. Public sector workers do valuable jobs, especially medical staff. Pay them what they’re worth for goodness sake!

Is this refusal to sit down and negotiate another opportunity for the government to say the nhs isn’t working and another system is needed. The American system maybe which is ok for the wealthy but not for the rest. Please NO!
My dd hasn’t had a pay rise fir the last 10 years, clapping does not pay the bills, She and her colleagues are on their knees. Morale is rock bottom, I support them in their fight but feel for those who need treatment.
It’s hard but the fight is also for more staff and better conditions fir both staff and patients.

My DD is a nurse and always run off her feet trying to do more than one person's work. Staffing levels aren't safe for patients. In my own family 2 nurses and a GP have left the NHS. Many are leaving and recruitment levels can't keep up.
It's not just about pay it's patient safety.

My GP daughter has gone to New Zealand.

silverlining48

Is this refusal to sit down and negotiate another opportunity for the government to say the nhs isn’t working and another system is needed. The American system maybe which is ok for the wealthy but not for the rest. Please NO!
My dd hasn’t had a pay rise fir the last 10 years, clapping does not pay the bills, She and her colleagues are on their knees. Morale is rock bottom, I support them in their fight but feel for those who need treatment.
It’s hard but the fight is also for more staff and better conditions fir both staff and patients.

Really.
These figures show again that NHS staff pay remained lower in real terms in 2021/22 than it was in 2010/11. As we saw in previous years, the drop has been sharpest among the highest paid, with the lowest paid somewhat protected. Doctors, nurses and all staff saw some recovery during 2020/21, with a relatively higher pay settlement and a slowdown in inflation as Covid-19 hit the UK, but this stalled or went into reverse during 2021/22.
As a retired Nurse, I have friends in the Profession, and they have had pay rises. Could be better, but a pay rise non the less.

My mum was a nurse in the 70s. She had to take early retirement due to injuring her back. Quite often she was the only nurse on a large ward and one day lifted a patient on her own. She damaged her back and had to take early retirement at 50.

Freya As you copied and pasted from the Nuffield Trust, you could at least have provided the link so people could read the rest of the article.

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/chart-of-the-week-what-has-happened-to-nhs-staff-pay-since-2010

Same in my family AGAA4 it's hard to see dedicated people struggling so much.