The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced that nurses will strike on February 6 and 7, with more NHS trusts participating than during two days of strikes in December. Nurses at 55 NHS trusts in England are already scheduled to strike this week on Wednesday and Thursday, but the February action will expand to cover 73 trusts. In Wales, 12 health boards and organisations will also go on strike for two days in a row. Pat Cullen, head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), has said any nurse providing emergency services as well as urgent cancer services will be exempt from the strike action so they will not “add any further risk or unsafe care to patients than they’re experiencing every single day. She apologised to any patients whose care would be disrupted due to the strikes and thanked them for their support. “However, what those nurses are doing is standing up for their patients and saying we need to find a solution,” she explained. “We need to find ways to keep nursing staff so that patients can receive the care and treatment they deserve.” Ms Cullen urged the government to “stop holding the pay review body close to their heart,” following ministers’ statements that the bodies determine public sector pay. “The NHS is more important than upholding the values of the pay review body,” she stated. “With the PRB, it cannot be business as usual; it must look different, consider our evidence differently, and deliver for nursing staff, because it has not delivered for our nursing staff to date.”
