‘Our sick youngsters are being put in danger by newest nurses’ strike’

Sick kids may very well be put in jeopardy when nurses stroll out once more tomorrow, the nation’s largest youngsters’s hospital warned.

Great Ormond Street pleaded with nurses to exempt its companies from strike motion to make sure the security of younger sufferers.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing will stroll out tomorrow at 8pm till midnight on Monday.

In an escalation of its motion, the union has not agreed to exempt any companies from motion – which means most cancers, emergency and youngsters’s care will all be affected.

Matthew Shaw, chief government of Great Ormond Street, stated: “We respect the right of our staff to take part in lawful industrial action.

“But after exhausting all choices, we have now critical considerations over how we’ll safely workers our hospital.”

“There is nothing extra essential than the security of our sufferers.”

“These youngsters don’t have any voice within the debate and we should defend them.”

“We urgently want security exemptions for our intensive care items and different areas of the hospital.”

To help ease the impact, the hospital has discharged patients who are safely able to go home, and explored sending patients to private hospitals.

It comes amid fresh strike woe after ambulance workers and junior hospital staff – from the Unite union – rejected the Government’s pay offer.

More than 4,000 members are set to walk out this weekend.

Ambulance staff in Yorkshire will do so Monday, with colleagues in the South of England and West Midlands following on Tuesday.

Industrial action will also hit some hospitals in London, Manchester, Lancashire and the West Midlands.

But members of the GMB accepted the pay offer to health workers – which amounts to a five percent rise plus a one-off payment of at least £1,655 this financial year.

The GMB – which also represents some ambulance crew and other staff – will vote to back the deal at Tuesday’s NHS Staff Council meeting.

A majority vote in favour would pave the way for the package to be implemented by the Government to all staff covered by the Agenda for Change offer – including members of unions that have rejected it.

There are 14 unions involved and the vote is weighted by membership numbers – Unison, which has accepted it, and the RCN, which doesn’t, are the largest.

The GMB’s Rachel Harrison said: “Our members recognise that progress has been made – from the Government initially providing nothing, well being staff will likely be hundreds of kilos higher off.”

“It additionally meets a key GMB demand of an enormous pay uplift for the bottom paid, lifting them above the Real Living Wage.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Today’s resolution by members of GMB to simply accept the pay provide, following Unison – who signify the biggest share of the NHS workforce – the Royal College of Midwives and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, demonstrates it’s a truthful and affordable proposal that may deliver this dispute to an finish.”

“I’m hopeful the NHS Staff Council accepts our provide after they meet.”

But Unite’s Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s members will return to the picket line to proceed their struggle. Rishi Sunak must take over this mess, roll his sleeves up and kind it.”