NHS services across England will face major disruption today after nurses walked out in a 28-hour strike over pay.
The strike, which will end just before midnight, comes after a High Court judge ruled it would be ‘unlawful’ for the industrial action to continue into Tuesday as originally planned.
Monday will also see thousands of NHS workers march through central London.
Unite said the march will coincide with a strike by its members in Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.
It follows concerns over the impact of the strike action on patient safety.
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen said yesterday that measures were in place to keep patients safe after concerns were raised about the impact of the strike action on emergency services.
The union initially said it would not agree to derogations – broad areas of care where staffing is guaranteed despite industrial action – but granted some exemptions on Friday in an apparent U-turn.
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is among organisations where nurses have agreed to derogations after it voiced ‘serious concerns’ about patient safety during the walkout.
The hospital said it was ‘incredibly grateful’ to RCN members for offering assurances but took the decision not to stand down a ‘business continuity incident’ until it was confident it could staff services during the strike.
The Unite walkout follows the rejection of the Government’s pay offer by its members.
The union said that with inflation still in double figures, the offer is a ‘substantial real-terms pay cut’ for NHS workers.
NHS England has warned that staffing levels in some areas of the country today will be ‘exceptionally low, lower than on previous strike days’.
It added the number of rescheduled appointments due to strike action is set to hit half a million next week.
NHS England has asked the general public (those who need non-urgent care) to go to pharmacies or dial 111 as their first port of call.
