Fears that a MILLION NHS staff could strike this winter

Fears that a MILLION NHS staff could go on strike this winter in a major series of walkouts over pay

• Up to two thirds of the NHS workforce could go on strike, as unions set to vote
• Seven unions representing nearly a million health staff have announced ballots
• MPs warned workers to ‘think very carefully’ over strike action and pay demands

The NHS could lose two thirds of its workforce to strikes this winter, with all the major health unions set to vote on walkouts.

Yesterday, Unite became the seventh union to announce a ballot, meaning almost a million health service staff could be involved in strike action over the coming months.

MPs warned workers to ‘think very carefully’ over strike action and pay demands that ‘would just break the NHS completely’. Health insiders said if the strikes went ahead, it could see hospitals fall into disrepair and patients’ calls go unanswered.

Unite said it would ballot a proportion of its 100,000 NHS members across England and Wales, who work in areas including nursing, counselling and psychotherapy, dental professions, maintenance, administration and ICT.

The NHS could lose two thirds of its workforce to strikes this winter, with all the major health unions set to vote on walkouts

MPs warned workers to ‘think very carefully’ over strike action and pay demands that ‘would just break the NHS completely’

It comes just a day after the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy announced it was opening a ballot for industrial action to more than 20,000 physiotherapists.

It is on top of the more than 850,000 NHS staff members, from nurses, junior doctors and midwives, that are either being balloted or are expected to be balloted on strike action over pay. There are around 1.4 million NHS workers in total, according to NHS Digital data.

Tory MP Mark Jenkinson said: ‘In the same way as the police can’t walk out, I think those who choose the caring professionals need to think very, very carefully about the impact on the wider NHS.

‘I fully understand the pressures of nurses but I heard a nurse this morning saying that nothing below 5 per cent above inflation will do, but that would just break the NHS completely.’

Critical care in life-threatening situations should not be put at risk if strikes take place, but elective treatment, outpatient care and other healthcare services, including chemotherapy, dialysis and surgery, are likely to be impacted.

If the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) votes in favour of action, strikes could take place next month

A Unite source said that if maintenance workers were to strike, NHS buildings could be left with delays in broken windows being fixed, lightbulbs being changed or air-conditioning and filtering systems being repaired.

Similarly, if workers who look after software systems take industrial action, there could be a delay in services getting back up and running, the source said.

It is unclear when strikes for the various unions could take place, but it is understood that if the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) votes in favour of action, it could take place next month. More than 300,000 members voted in the RCN’s ballot, the first in its 106-year history. It is understood that a large majority have voted to walk out.

Healthcare staff cannot legally be sacked if they participate in official and lawful industrial action. However, unlike other sectors, some staff will continue to work. The specific exemptions are negotiated with each NHS trust.

A government spokesman said: ‘We value the hard work of NHS staff, including nurses, and are working hard to support them – including by giving over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year… on top of 3 per cent last year when pay was frozen in the wider public sector.

‘Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.’

All goodwill earned in the pandemic will just melt away

Commentary by Dr Martin Scurr

Everybody working in the NHS – whether as a nurse, a doctor or a carer – signed up for a life of public service. Whatever happens, the patients come first.

All of us must abide by that ancient principle: ‘First, do no harm.’ It is as right and true today as it has always been but, sadly, many health workers now regard it as a reactionary notion.

Dr Martin Scurr: Everybody working in the NHS – whether as a nurse, a doctor or a carer – signed up for a life of public service. Whatever happens, the patients come first.

That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from reports that a large majority of 300,000 Royal College of Nursing members have voted to strike over pay.

This would absolutely be the wrong thing to do and I can only hope that many of those who voted for industrial action have done so purely as a bargaining tactic. I want to believe that the vast majority of them are crossing their fingers and praying that the dispute does not culminate in a strike.

Many other health workers’ unions, from junior doctors and physiotherapists to midwives and paramedics, have either balloted their members or are expected to do so over strike action this winter.

There’s a real risk that up to half of all NHS staff will suspend duties, not all at once but in a staged series of rolling, politically motivated walkouts. This is calculated to cause maximum disruption to every aspect of healthcare.

The callousness is shocking – and the cost to human life is frightening to imagine. This year has seen an escalation in the willingness of activists to put other people’s lives at risk, such as the fuel protesters who stop emergency services getting through.

But to see NHS staff adopting the same ruthless tactics is chilling. Without paramedics, ambulances cannot function. Without junior doctors, already overstretched A&E departments will be under greater pressure than ever.

Such mass action is unthinkable and I can only beg my colleagues across the health service to see sense and respect the profession they chose.

If they decide on industrial action, it could well happen before Christmas, the worst possible time for multiple reasons. The most obvious is that, with the onset of winter – as seasonal illnesses start to peak – the NHS enters a critical period.

We are already facing appalling backlogs as a result of the pandemic.

There’s a real risk that up to half of all NHS staff will suspend duties, not all at once but in a staged series of rolling, politically motivated walkouts

The number waiting to start hospital treatment has topped seven million in England, an all-time high. Another 1.5 million are waiting for a scan or test. Now more than ever, hospitals need all their staff to be prepared to work overtime, putting in extra hours to fulfil the waiting list clearance initiatives.

By withdrawing their labour at this critical time, NHS workers will force even more treatments to be postponed.

With deaths from cardiac disease and cancer rising steeply in the wake of the pandemic, it’s irresponsible and negligent to do anything that makes it harder for people to access the healthcare they need.

It’s also hugely frustrating to see the nurses’ union in particular throw away so much of the goodwill built up by their members during the pandemic.

When the public stood on their doorsteps every Thursday night during the first lockdown, to cheer and bang saucepans, it was a sincere expression of their gratitude and admiration. We all knew how much our health workers were sacrificing. They risked their lives for patients, and some paid the ultimate price. To squander that support would be a tragedy.

Yes, it’s deplorable that their wages, in real terms, have decreased by around 15 per cent since the economic crash of 2008. But at a time when the whole country is facing a cost of living crisis, nursing is still a comparatively well-paid job, with a good pension and a salary that is better than many others working in health and care.

Nursing has always been a vocation, and, as such, deserving of great respect. When I started work as a GP in the 1970s, nurses were still expected to wear their distinctive overcoats and hats when they left the hospital and they were held in such high regard that, if they hailed a taxi, many cabbies could be relied on to refuse payment at the end of their journey.

These days, the starched linen has been replaced by all-purpose nylon and most patients struggle to tell the difference between nursing grades. A senior nurse looks like a healthcare assistant, or a cleaner.

The Salmon Report in 1967 tried to improve the status of nurses by pushing them into hospital management.

This has had the unwanted effect of taking the most experienced nurses off the wards and trapping them behind desks in administrative roles.

As a result, nurses are no longer seen as ‘Nightingales’, who offer gentle care at the bedside and dispense calm reassurance. It’s a real loss for all of us.

Everyone in the health service deserves society’s respect – but they will not win that by going on strike. 

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