Strikes by healthcare staff were due to be continued by a 48-hour nurses’ strike over the May bank holiday, which has now been ordered to stop a day sooner than planned by a High Court judge.
The walkout by members of the Royal College of Nursing, including staff in emergency care, and cancer and intensive care wards amongst others, was planned from 8pm Sunday 30 April, to 8pm Tuesday 2 May. The strike will now end on Monday, after the government sought legal action over when exactly the strike was due to end.
The group NHS Employers claimed that any action taken on 2 May would be outside the six-month mandate members voted for when they cast their votes on 2 November.
NHS Employers referred their concerns to Health Secretary Steve Barclay, and a court ruling went ahead Thursday, 27 April in a move RCN General Secretary And Chief Executive Pat Cullen called ‘nakedly political’, and after the result of the ruling was made known, she said it was “the darkest day” of the dispute.
Downing Street said it was “regrettable” the government had to go to court, and said they tried to avoid it.
Judge Mr Justice Linden ordered the RCN to cover the costs of the hearing and said the union had shown “a high degree of unreasonableness”, and “instead of grasping the nettle and conceding”, they had forced the case to court.
Ms Cullen said: “They have won their legal battle today. But they have lost nursing and they’ve lost the public.
“They’ve taken the most trusted profession through the courts, by the least trusted people.”
She warned of further strike action for the next six months if Steve Barclay “continues to stay in the tunnel he’s in”.
Mr Barclay said: “I firmly support the right to take industrial action within the law – but the government could not stand by and let plainly unlawful strike action go ahead.”
A 5% pay increase for 2023-24 was offered, as well as a one-off payment of £1,655 on top of the past year’s salary, but was declined by RCN members.
Unison accepted the 5% offer, as has GMB, while Unite have not. BMA have not ruled out co-ordinated action with other unions, and say they are prepared to strike again if the government refuses to negotiate.
Strike action will affect Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Sheffield Health and Social Care and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts.
This strike joins others earlier in April. Statistics from the NHS revealed 2,950 appointments from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and Sheffield Children’s Hospital had to be rescheduled as a result of the junior doctor strikes by the British Medical Association from 11 to 14 April. A total of 195,000 cancelled appointments nationally were reported.