Royal College of Nursing’s director for England, Patricia Marquis, has told Sky News that so far there has been no “direct contact” with Rishi Sunak despite four previous strike days.
“It’s a cry out to Rishi Sunak”, she said, “to come to the table to seek a resolution. So far we’ve not had direct contact with him, all of our efforts have been through the secretary of state for health.
“And those have not really brought us any solutions.
“So really, now, we don’t want the strikes to go ahead tomorrow or at any point. And we’re really calling on the prime minister to intervene, to come to the table and seek a resolution with us.”
Monday 6 February will see tens of thousands of NHS workers including nurses, in England, and GMB union ambulance workers, in England and Wales, taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions.
On Tuesday 7 February, a second day of nursing strikes will take place.
Thursday 9 February will see more than 4,000 NHS physiotherapists walk out across England.
And on Friday there will be more ambulance worker strikes – this time members represented by Unison in London, Yorkshire, the South West, the North East and North West.
Carmel O’Boyle has been a nurse in Scotland and Liverpool for six years, and an NHS worker for nearly two decades.
She describes making the “horrendous” and “emotional” decision to strike.
“No nurse wants to strike,” she said, “but the wages just aren’t compatible with the cost of living”.
“We need a wage increase that is in line with inflation so that we can attract people, and keep people in the profession so that we can give the care to our patients that we want to deliver.”
Strikes will have ‘impact on patients’
The health secretary has described the industrial action as “regrettable” and said the strikes will “undoubtedly have an impact on patients and cause delays to NHS services”.
Carmel says the government needs to understand that “people aren’t dying because nurses are striking, nurses are striking because people are dying”. – Sky News