Up to 100,000 nurses will participate in the strike. Nurses have been offered a salary increase of a few percent, which according to the nurses’ union is completely insufficient in the current inflation.
In Britain, almost 100,000 nurses in England, Northern Ireland and Wales have started a strike, which is scheduled to last until Thursday evening, British media reports.
Vital functions of health care, such as intensive care, are outside the scope of the strike.
The strike began after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the union representing nurses, rejected the government’s offer of nurses’ pay as insufficient.
According to RCN, it had no choice but to start a strike when the government did not agree to open discussions on salary increases.
The nurses are scheduled to go on strike again on Tuesday next week if the situation is not resolved.
– This is a tragic day for medical care. A tragic day for patients in hospitals and a tragic day for our nation and our public healthcare system, general secretary of the RCN Pat Cullen commented to the British broadcasting company BBC.
British Health Secretary Steve Barclay complains that the wage dispute led to a strike.
– I have worked on the issue in the government and with doctors outside the public sector to ensure the necessary number of personnel, but I am still worried about the risks posed by strikes to patients, the health minister commented according to Reuters.
The salary increase offered to nurses is well below inflation
The British government says the pay rise it is offering between four and five percent was recommended by an independent body, and it cannot afford to raise wages further without cutting money from other critical services.
According to the Nurses’ Union, inflation hovering at more than ten percent in Britain has led to a significant drop in the real earnings of nurses.
The union demands a 19 percent salary increase for nurses. According to the British government, the demand is unreasonable.
The strike is the largest in the history of the UK’s public health system (NHS), as the RCN has not previously gone on a general strike in its 106-year history.
The NHS has long been in dire straits, suffering from staff shortages and burnout among existing staff. Tens of thousands of nurses are exhausted from hospitals, and patient queues created during the corona pandemic have not been able to be dismantled.
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