Nurses and other Agenda for Change staff at an NHS trust in London are going to strike on one of the same days as their junior doctor colleagues next week.
Unite the union has announced that its members at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust will hold a 24-hour strike from 7am on Thursday 13 July.
“The NHS’ recruitment and retention crisis is worsening by the day”
Sharon Graham
Among those taking strike action at the trust will be a large number of nurses, confirmed Unite.
The strike begins at the same time as the British Medical Association junior doctor strike across the NHS in England.
However, the junior doctor strike is set to last for longer, running until 7am on Tuesday 18 July.
Unite has also announced a new strike by its members at Yorkshire Ambulance Service on Friday 14 June, between 3pm and 10pm – which also coincides with the action by junior doctors.
The union said its latest strikes marked a continuation of its “long running dispute over pay and safe staffing”.
The latest NHS pay deal for England is now being implemented after being accepted by the majority of unions on the NHS Staff Council.
Unite, however, was one of the unions that rejected the deal and in March/April, its members at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and Yorkshire Ambulance Service voted in favour of further strikes. They have since held strike action in both May and June.
The union is in the process of balloting a “substantial number” of members in other NHS trusts across England to expand its industrial action mandate.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The NHS’ recruitment and retention crisis is worsening by the day.
“Until the government addresses the chronic low pay of NHS workers, the problems currently being experienced will only become more severe.
“Unite’s focus on the jobs, pay and conditions of its members, means that our workers taking industrial action in the NHS will enjoy the union’s complete support.”
The government confirmed it was working with NHS England to put in plans contingency plans for the latest strikes aimed at protecting patient safety.
“These strikes will put more pressure on the NHS and will be disruptive for patients”
DHSC spokesperson
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: “It is disappointing some Unite members are continuing strike action – these strikes will put more pressure on the NHS and will be disruptive for patients.
“Most unions on the NHS Staff Council voted to accept our pay offer and over 1 million staff have now received their pay rise and one-off payments.
“We hope the unions who choose to remain in dispute – despite many of their members also voting to accept this offer – will recognise this as a fair outcome that carries the support of their colleagues and decide it is time to bring industrial action to an end.”
The government’s advice to patients continues to be to attend NHS appointments unless told otherwise, and to use 999 and 111 as normal.
On its website, Guy’s and St Thomas’ said the upcoming strikes would impact services across all its hospital and community sites and that it would be contacting some patients to postpone appointments and procedures.
More about the latest NHS pay deal