NHS organisations in Nottinghamshire will not be affected by two new nurse strike dates in the new year. Earlier today (Friday, December 23) the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced its members would walk out on January 18 and 19 in a continuing dispute with the government over pay.
Despite the number of NHS trusts affected in England increasing from 44 to 55, no organisations in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire will be impacted by walkouts in this round of action. The RCN said this was to help it sustain strike action for longer.
"Our strike action may need to be prolonged unless the government finds a way to resolve our dispute with them, so calling strike action in different employers at different times helps us to sustain strike action for as long as we need to," said a spokesman for the union.
Read more: Nottingham hospitals postponed over 1,200 appointments and procedures during nurse strike
Staff at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation and the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB all went on strike on December 15 and 20. Across both days, more than 1,000 absences were recorded due to strikes, with more than 2,500 appointments being postponed.
Strikes will however take place at organisations across Derbyshire, which could affect patients on the Nottinghamshire border in the likes of Long Eaton, Ilkeston and Sandiacre. "Our members in every NHS organisation in which strike action isn’t being called this time can be assured that when colleagues elsewhere do go on strike, it’s in pursuit of the very same improvements in pay and working conditions because these issues are common across the NHS," continued the RCN spokesman.
He said the union would not rule out further strike action at the Nottinghamshire organisations and added that the "ball is in the government's court".
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