Second strike: Nurses walk out again as five key London hospitals decimated
Nurses in Britain will go on their second day of industrial action in the space of a week with five London hospitals to be the centre of the strikes.
The hospitals to be affected include Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Guys and St. Thomas’ and Imperial College Healthcare, Royal Marsden and NHS North Central London.
The Royal College of Nurses is calling for 19 per cent increase in wages (5 per cent plus inflation) to counteract a growing cost of living crisis. The Government have called their demands “unaffordable”.
Pat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive at the Royal College of Nurses said in a statement: “The Prime Minister should ask himself what is motivating nursing staff to stand outside their hospitals for a second day so close to Christmas.”
“Let’s get this wrapped up by Christmas. I will negotiate with him at any point to stop nursing and patients going into the new year facing such uncertainty”, she said.
Across the country more than 19,000 hospital appointments and surgeries have been postponed, in England, almost 16,000 appointments have gone unserviced.
Ambulance staff are preparing to continue striking tomorrow. A total of 750 members of the armed forces have been asked to step in for the ambulance drivers.
However, they have been told they are not allowed to treat anyone or use blue lights on vehicles.
Speaking to Westminster Hour on BBC Radio 4, Jacob Rees-Mogg, former business secretary criticised the military’s involvement in the nurse strikes: “I think the job of the military is to do what they’re told by civilian authorities.”
Health secretary Steve Barclay is meeting with the ambulance workers today, but negotiations will seemingly not prevent further strikes.