ursing union chief Pat Cullen has referred to as on Health Secretary Stephen Barclay to restart pay negotiations with a proposed rise in double digits.
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members will start a brand new poll for strike motion on May 23 after the prevailing six-month mandate ran out firstly of the month.
And the overall secretary, who described hanging as one of many “hardest decisions”, advised The Sunday Times contemporary negotiations had been wanted to stop six extra months of motion.
“They (ministers) owe that to nursing staff not to push them to have to do another six months of industrial action right up to Christmas,” she stated forward of Sunday’s RCN congress in Brighton, telling Mr Barclay talks have to “start off in double figures”.
“It’s just not right for the profession,” she stated.
“It’s not right for patients. But whose responsibility is it to resolve it? It is this government.”
Having pushed for a 19% pay rise, she had suggested members to simply accept a proposal of 5% – a deal they rejected regardless of being accepted by 14 different unions.
“It’s not so long ago since the Prime Minister went on the media and very publicly said nurses are an exception,” she stated when requested why nurses warrant a bigger improve than different healthcare employees.
“I would totally agree with him… they should be made an exception because they are exceptional people.”
The psychological well being nurse, 58, from Co Tyrone, stated affected person security was “at the centre of everything that we do”.
“We will do nothing that will add further risk to the patients that we look after,” she stated, saying elevated pay would see nurses return to the career and ease a staffing disaster.
“The truth is that patient safety cannot be guaranteed on any day of the week. How could you guarantee patient safety when you have 47,000 nurses from your workforce every single day and night?”
She warned Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to not take her members frivolously.
“Looking back on this pay offer, I may personally have underestimated the members and their sheer determination,” she stated.
“I think what I would be saying to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is ‘Don’t – don’t make that same mistake, don’t underestimate them’.
“Nurses believe it’s their duty and their responsibility because this government is not listening to them on how to bring it (the NHS) back from the brink and the message to the Prime Minister is that they are absolutely not going to blink first in these negotiations.”
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