Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure to negotiate with striking nurses after four former Tory ministers joined health service leaders in calling for a way out of the escalating dispute.
On a day when Chief Nurse England joined the picket line, the Prime Minister and Health Secretary Steve Barclay were implored to do a U-turn and ask the Pay Review Body (PRB) of the ‘NHS to review the increase it recommended. earlier this year.
The idea gained momentum during the first NHS-wide strike by nurses, which led to the cancellation of thousands of outpatient appointments and operations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Citizens rallied in noisy shows of support for nurses on picket lines on Thursday, supporting them in their fight for a pay rise that takes into account rising inflation that has eroded living standards.
Nurses picket outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has threatened to walk out in the coming months if ministers don’t start negotiating a better deal than £1,400 a head, which Sunak and Barclay insist is the most they can afford and is online. with the February PRB conclusions.
Jerry Cope, former head of the PRB, said the body should consider revising its original finding that most NHS staff deserved a £1,400 pay rise by 2022-23 as “it may be a possibility for a solution to this seemingly intractable problem.” .
He said: “I think they [ministers] he should ask the salary review body to…make a very quick turnaround on this year’s recommendations and [say]”I want you to take note of anything you missed last time.”
The PRB is a long-established independent body that advises ministers on what size of pay awards nurses and most of the UK’s 1.5 million NHS staff, excluding doctors and dentists, should receive.
The NHS Confederation, the hospital body, told ministers on Thursday night that a new approach was needed to avoid the risk of its dispute with the RCN turning into a prolonged “stalemate” disrupting key NHS services and the treatment of patients.
Nurses on the picket line at Leeds General Infirmary. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Steve Brine, a former health minister who now chairs the Commons health select committee, said inviting the pay review body to look again would be sensible.
“It seems to me that there is no end game, no exit strategy for the government and the RCN in this dispute. The way out is to protect the integrity of the [pay review] process, go back and ask them to look again,” he said.
If ministers ask for a reassessment, Brine said, the RCN would have to show good faith by calling off the second strike, which will take place on Tuesday 20 December.
This would be “the flipside” of ministers abandoning what has been their insistence that they cannot deviate from the PRB’s recommendation, which came before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered runaway inflation.
“I think everybody needs to cool it,” Brine said.
Miriam Norby, a chemotherapy nurse from Newcastle, joins the picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary, said “a middle ground” must be found between the 4% the government is offering and the 5% above-inflation rise it has been seeking (currently 19% , based on an RPI of 14). %)).
“I just hope both sides can find it,” he said.
The union has made clear in recent days that it would consider reducing the size of the percentage increase it was willing to accept to help reach a deal.
Jake Berry, chairman of the Conservative party under Liz Truss, and Dr Daniel Poulter, another former health minister, also made clear their support for a negotiated deal involving the PRB.
Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, blamed ministerial intransigence for Thursday’s strikes, which involved up to 100,000 nurses.
“The strikes could have been avoided if the government had tried to find more common ground with the RCN on pay,” Taylor said. “The government cannot sit back and let future strikes happen when patient care is at stake.
“The concern is that this is only the beginning, that the strikes possibly planned for January could be more severe and coordinated between the different unions, and that we could be in a situation of stagnation for the foreseeable future.
“This does not benefit anyone and the government must act,” he said.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, highlighted the potential for nurse strikes to have a growing impact on the NHS. Without the “ministerial willingness to negotiate pay-related issues”, the next series of RCN strikes could affect more hospitals, last longer and see fewer areas of care exempted on patient safety grounds, he said.
In an unexpected move, Ruth May, the chief nurse at NHS England, joined the picket line of striking nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, across the River Thames from the houses of parliament. He told reporters that ministers should work with the RCN and other health unions to resolve the huge pay gaps between them.
Nurses on the picket line at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter. Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian
Reflecting on the strikes, Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said: “Today will be a turning point in the campaign for fair nursing pay. In the end, ministers are under new pressure from unexpected places: their own MPs, NHS leaders and a former chairman of the pay review body.
“Each of these groups, for different reasons, wants the government to stop hiding behind its current fig leaf.
“On a bitterly cold day, the public’s warmth towards nursing staff was immense. For my members, this has been about professional pride, not personal hardship – talking about nursing, patients and future of the NHS”.
Meanwhile, Sir Jim Mackey, senior director of NHS England, warned that next Wednesday’s strike by ambulance workers across England represented “an entirely different order of magnitude of risk. [than the nurses’ strike]” to patient safety. All surgeries scheduled for that day may have to be canceled “as an absolute last resort,” to free up staff to attend to patients who need urgent care, he said.