Since 2010, paramedics have seen a real terms pay cut of £6,000, while nurses have seen their pay fall by £5,000
Today sees the biggest NHS strike in England’s history, with nurses and ambulance staff taking industrial action over low pay, patient safety and poor working conditions.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing across 73 trusts are walking out for 12 hours and started at 7.30 a.m. More than 10,000 ambulance staff in GMB and Unite have also walked out too, coinciding with the nurses’ strike for the first time.
Nurses will also strike on Tuesday, while ambulance staff will walk out on Friday and physiotherapists on Thursday.
The General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, has said nurses in England are being “punished and left behind” as a result of the government’s failure to resolve a dispute with the union over pay and conditions.
She told Sky News that in both Scotland and Wales, the administrations had opened negotiations, with the union announcing on Friday that it was calling off planned strikes in Wales this week following a new pay offer from the Welsh government.
She said: “This government and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has turned its back on nurses, in fact if you look at what’s happened across England and compare it to Scotland and Wales, where both governments have got to the table and started to negotiate, it can only be described that the nurses in England now are being punished and left behind by Rishi Sunak and this government.”
Since 2010, paramedics have seen a real terms pay cut of £6,000, while nurses have seen their pay fall by £5,000 since 2010. Amid a cost of living crisis, 1 in 3 nurses are having difficulty covering the cost of food and heating their homes.
Union leaders have urged the Government to act to prevent further strike action but ministers in England have indicated that they will not budge on the issue of pay.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
(Picture credit: forayinto35mm: Creative Commoons)
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.