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Nurses will strike again across the UK in January over an ongoing dispute over pay.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union held two strikes in December, resulting in the cancellation of 30,000 surgeries and appointments.
RCN is demanding a 19 percent salary increase, which was rejected by the Government as “unaffordable”.
Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary, said of the upcoming layoffs: “The government had the opportunity to settle this dispute before Christmas, but instead chose to push the nurses back into the cold in January.
“I don’t want to prolong this dispute, but the Prime Minister has left us no choice.
“The public support has been heartwarming and I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing to do for patients and the future of the NHS.”
She added that “nursing’s voice will not be ignored” and that “the sooner ministers come to the negotiating table, the sooner this issue can be resolved”.
When is the next nurse’s strike?
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Wednesday, January 18
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Thursday, January 19
Since the next strikes will be held on consecutive days, they may cause more disruption than the first two-day strike on December 15 and 20.
Despite claims that as many as 100,000 nurses will go on strike in December, figures in the UK show that less than 12,000 nurses are on strike.
But some nurses who want to strike may not be on staff, while others will have to work in action-free services.
Which hospitals will be affected?
The next wave of strikes will involve more trusts – about a third from a quarter in December.
In total, 55 trusts in the UK will be affected by the strike action, this number increased to 44 when the strike took place before Christmas.
There will be no strikes this time in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Unions said agreements to protect certain services during the December strikes would not be automatically renewed.
Emergency maintenance is protected from strike action, and an agreement was made in December exempting a number of services from industrial action.
However, cancer patients were among those who saw that their surgery and appointments were canceled.
While RCN requested a 19 percent salary increase, Ms Cullen hinted that the union might be willing to accept a 10 percent salary increase after urging the Government to meet “halfway”.
Young doctor strike: voting opens on January 9
About 45,000 junior doctors will begin voting on Monday on whether to go on strike. The strikes, which will begin with a three-day strike in March, will require paramedics to support the strikes.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said any such action — including the removal of emergency insurance — would begin with a “full business shutdown” for 72 hours.
BMA leaders have already said it is “likely” that young doctors will vote in favor of the strike, as part of a campaign to see a pay rise by more than a quarter.
The industrial action by doctors will be the first since 2016, when four terms of industrial action led to nearly 300,000 appointments and surgery cancellations.
A 72-hour strike would be significantly longer than such strikes, lasting up to 48 hours each.
The removal of emergency insurance means NHS trusts will be forced to hire senior paramedics to do tasks normally performed by minors.
ambulance strikes
Thousands of ambulance workers across the country are also preparing to go out of work in January due to a wage dispute, after unions declared strike action with paramedics and 999 callers.
The strikes will take place on January 11 (GMB and Unison) and January 23 (Unison).
Unison said its action, which will involve five NHS ambulance trusts, will involve all ambulance workers, including call workers, not just 999 responders, as in the first ambulance strikes in December.
Welsh ambulance workers in Unite are also preparing to organize two strikes on 19 and 23 January.
