Nurses’ strikes: NHS declares ‘critical incidents’ as government and unions refuse to budge

The honking of support is constant in Bromsgrove. I thought people were going to hate us. People were going to say, "You're

nurses

, for God's sake, what are you doing?" but I think most people understand us and support us for 106 years. Members of the Royal College of Nursing have never gone on strike today is the second strike in less than a week How did it come to this? How did it come to this? It is simply heartbreaking our profession is breaking down we are the young actress is broken and our profession is breaking down with her and that is heartbreaking, yes, they will stay at home, we will say, because of that passionate, today he abandons the patients, yes, but What happens with the other 364 days of the year and do you already know something about the RCN?

They have supported and ensured that there are enough

nurses

to cover inpatient settings in community settings, but what about the other times when every day of the year there are not enough patients at risk? RCN is asking for a salary increase of 19, the

government

's offer is around 4.7 on average in England and Wales that negotiate conditions they say but not a penny more in salary I am so upset that they don't even talk to us and we think about everything we have been through in the pandemic We looked after Boris Johnson, we saved his life and they don't even want to talk about the cake with us.

Questioned today by the Commons liaison committee. The Prime Minister said that he understands how difficult it is now, but he is still not moving. I have recognized that it is so. difficult, it is difficult for everyone because inflation is where it is and the best way to help them and to help everyone else in the country is to control and reduce inflation as quickly as possible and we must make sure that the decisions that we make we can achieve that outcome because if we're wrong and we're still dealing with high inflation a year from now that's not going to help anyone.

I don't want to see that I want things to go back to normal. and that's why having an independent payment process is an important part of us making those decisions and getting them right and that's why we accept those recommendations in their entirety. Tomorrow things will get even more difficult with tens of thousands of ambulance workers leaving nine trusts across England and Wales will continue to respond to life-threatening situations, but the

government

has suggested people should avoid contact sports and unnecessary car journeys just in case even before the

strikes

begin, although five trusts, including Yorkshire Ambulance Service, have declared

critical

incidents

today and paramedics say such is the stress the system is under that perhaps don't notice any difference tomorrow the strike days I don't think they are going to be more dangerous than today why not or yesterday why well, simply because the number of cases that we cannot respond to seems to be constantly increasing we are stuck in the hospital without being able to discharge patients because the flow of patients through the hospital has been severely affected by government decisions.

Ambulance staff say they are not asking for a 19% increase like the RCN, but they say they need more. of 4.75 percent and desperately want the government to negotiate. I think if the government was willing to negotiate on wages, if it was willing to talk to us about wages, there would definitely be room for negotiation. The NHS Confederation has warned the government that they cannot guarantee patients. security tomorrow today, although from Leeds to London and in trusts across Wales, Northern Ireland and England, there is no sign of nurses backing down, even if choosing a picket line over patients fights all their instincts.

I cried, I cried, tea time came and I was hopeful. that the decision would be overturned and that we would not need to take collective action. I cried and I'm not the only one and I talked to all my colleagues and we were all very tearful and very upset because this is not what we want to do, but we don't have it, we have no control over it now, so we have to do it. A number of NHS trusts have this evening declared

critical

incidents

amid significant pressures, significant pressures which at this stage look set to continue for months to come.

I spoke to Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing. Speaking from a picket line in Leeds, the Prime Minister vowed to stand firm against what he calls unreasonable pay demands for months if necessary. I asked if they were prepared to defend themselves. months too well, I have told the Prime Minister directly today that he can make this the last day of the strike if he does the decent thing and walks into a room and starts negotiating and on behalf of the tens of thousands of nurses that we have. we represent and we could start the American New Year, in fact, probably the last full year before an election, without

strikes

, you said that directly to the Prime Minister, that's your message or you got a phone call.

No, I am a senator directly. I haven't spoken to any government minister for a week. Last week he took me to one of his offices. They told me his door was always open and arranged a meeting with me. I was attracted and optimistic along with my colleagues thinking that I was going to be able to avoid this strike today on behalf of these wonderful nursing staff and when we walked into that room, the Secretary of State made it very clear to me that we can talk about anything, but we should not talk about salary there. Not a single brown cent was put on the table?

In addition to what the peer review process has offered these people, okay, you closed your books and walked away, but there has been something new on the table today from the Prime Minister where he says if you cancel these strikes, you will get a better salary agreement next year. We need to address nursing pay this year. We cannot continue to increase 50,000 vacant nursing positions. We are eliminating brilliant nurses from our profession and the impact is palpable on our patients the nurses who have to go to work in supermarkets in other retail units to be able to gain a few extra pounds every hour to be able to pay their bills travel to work and maintain a roof over their heads that is no way to treat this profession and the people who are suffering and as a result of the government turning its back on our nursing staff are our patients, the public of this country and our nursing staff, so they will keep dating until they get what they want.

We are prepared to continue like this indefinitely. Well, it's our nursing staff that says one offer is enough. These people have not made this decision lately. We all know. So let's face it, this government thinks it was an easy decision for anyone in our country. nursing staff need to think again these are the same people who kept this country going through a pandemic are you worried that you have crossed a Rubicon now that you know, whereas in the past the public may have always seen nurses as some kind of potentially angelic figures? Now you are harming patients with these strikes.

Look, the public is much smarter than that. You only had to walk among these great people on Thursday on the first day of action and today to see that there are hundreds of members of the public and patients. leaving your appointments and standing shoulder to shoulder with our nursing staff and saying we're good with you, then there's people honking, there's applause, you know, obviously you feel encouraged by that. I think you are winning this fight with the government as things stand, for me it's not about who wins or who the users are, it's about us getting into a room and starting to seriously address the critical issues for our nursing staff. and at the crucial point of It's about addressing the issues around your pay and whether we really want to try to pull the NHS back from the brink and try to make sure that every patient gets the care and treatment that they absolutely deserve and make sure that We can recruit and retain the nurses we have then you have to walk into a room and start talking, but it's not about winning or losing, it's about doing the decent thing, but if you can't walk into a room because the government

refuse

s to have those conversations.

Where does this end? Like the next time there is a strike in January? Are you going to remove some of the services that are currently protected, such as chemotherapy and dialysis? Will it escalate from here? Well, look if this government continues after today doing the wrong thing and keeping our nursing staff in the cold. I am afraid that in January we will have to continue with industrial action obviously there would be more organizations included within that industrial action and that means that more nurses would find themselves taking part in industrial action Pat Cullen speaking to Kathy Well, I'm joined now by Victor Adobe, president of the NHS Confederation.

Victor, it's good to have you on the show again. I mean, we have at least eight critical incidents declared today, across different NHS and ambulance trusts across the country. I mean, this is "It's a really bad situation, right? It's bad, yeah, it's um, yeah. My members have been telling us that they're very worried about the patients, um, and that the patients will be harmed, uh, because of the nurses and ambulance strikes, um, us.” We have plans in place that will prioritize urgent and life-saving care. Last week we had 2,500 elective operations that had to be canceled as a result of the first day of ERC and the strike, and you know this disruption will be significant. worse, more severe with back-to-back training and that is why we have written to the Prime Minister along with NHS providers, asking for a resolution to be sought and although we have said, health leaders feel they cannot guarantee patient safety and I know.

Health leaders don't want to be in this position but they have to tell it like it is, they are being brutally honest Victor, what you are really saying then I guess is that lives may be lost as a result of what is happening. Right now, well, when you talk about not being able to ensure patient safety, you know that's another way of expressing those terrible consequences. Yes, you know those are the terrible consequences that can arise from that situation. We hope that doesn't happen. I don't think there is a nurse or a frontline worker in the NHS or social care system who wants that.

None of my members want it, but what they are saying is that they cannot guarantee patient safety. This is really easy, right, and it sounds like a desperate plea for the government and

unions

to come together and reach a deal as soon as possible, so anyway this will be resolved, right? At some point both sides will have to get together and resolve this. The government and

unions

simply cannot afford to let this situation go astray, especially as we face the prospect of more strikes in the new year and it could have taken longer to cover more areas and services.

Both sides needed to stop this kind of posturing. I guess the government should prepare to negotiate over wages and unions should prepare to fulfill their commitment to protect life and limit life. In the face of extreme pressures, we have to understand that this is due to the massive vacancies that my members have been talking about for some time. We cannot allow this to be a failure on both sides. eve of the first ambulance strike in 30 years and this is not this has not happened but the need to work harder right uh we can't we have to avoid anything okay Victor Victor we are both old enough to remember the industrial action of the 70s and 80 because we have had relatively little, do you think we have lost the ability to have these types of negotiations?

Well, I mean, you know, the facts of the matter are whether we've lost it or not, we have to learn. talking to each other, you know, at the end of the day, you know, as I've often said in negotiations, it's successful when both parties walk away, leave the table, feel a little miserable, um, they're going to have to go around the table. I believe too. that those with the most power would have to take the first step and you know, health leaders are really concerned about how people who require urgent support, but it's not an immediate threat to life, cartridges two and three will be careful, they will be staffed um with safe staffing levels so that's what I'm saying what they're saying so you know this has to be resolved okay I hear what you're saying uh Victor I'm fleshing it out thank you very much.