To ask what the nursing/NHS strike will look like?

[PinkyU]

My experience of strike action is generally a complete walk out of staff and total cessation of service to illicit the highest level of disruption to the company or organisation.

Given the hugely important role of all these HCP what will the nursing/NHS strike look like? A skeleton staff, bank nurses (are they unionised?), private sector workers?

I feel a bit daft to not know how it will work but I’m sure there are others who don’t know either so hopefully my ignorance may help others as well as myself.

I spoke to a nurse yesterday who has chosen to strike. Her story of working on a ward compelled me to agree with her, to be honest.

The NHS can't sustain itself as it is. It needs to be broken apart and put back together again, only the Covid backlog, low GP levels and nursing staff shortages are never going to allow this to happen.

Pensions don't pay the mortgage

Even if I got a better deal working in Tesco, I wouldn't do it. Nursing is my vocation and I love it.

What's pathetic and dangerous is allowing the people who keep patients alive day in, day out to be grossly underpaid while allowing their departments to be understaffed so they're exhausted and undersupported and working in horrendously stressful conditions.

Nurses shouldn't put up with poor working conditions for poor pay just because their job is important. The fact that their job is important makes it all the more crucial that the government addresses the crisis in nursing, in fact. And they're not. Hence the strike.

I want this on a t-shirt!

I believe physiotherapists and other AHP are planning to strike as well.

Good for you. Think of your other colleagues who aren’t so lucky. Who work way and above their duties every day. Who leave late, don’t get a break, can’t give the care they wish to for their patients. This isn’t about individuals it’s about a workforce and thousands of nurses are at their breaking point.

I do support the strike and think that it is not just pay but working conditions that need to be improved and more recruitment is needed. I noticed that a pp above said that chemo will be cancelled. Is that actually true? I find that hard to believe.

Yes, elective ie planned chemo will be stopped on the days nurses strike. Unless an emergency. All chemo is given by nurses and most is administered in the outpatient setting. Those appointments will need to be rescheduled. As will surgery. One off chemo cancellations will be possible to fit in elsewhere but a sustained strike will be very difficult as the service is straining at the seams.

Who has confirmed that any planned chemo and surgery will be cancelled on strike days

It fully depends on trust.

I'm my trust, the rcn members are the minority amongst staff, and off the rcn staff eligible to vote, we didn't get 50% turn out. So no strikes will happen so strikes won't effect anything within my trust

Of course, this could prove different amongst unison which is a bigger proportion of staff.

All I can offer to patients worried about services, is, atm, don't worry.

Trusts only confirmed yesterday if they met the threshold, plans will be being constructed at the moment and as soon as they know why will contact people effected. But at the minute I don't think anyone can 100% state chemo or electives will be cancelled as it will be on a trust by trust basis.

My word the typos there. I'm sorry 🙈

I work for a large trust and was emailed today to say that there was not enough staff that voted for the strike so no one from our trust will strike. So it wont affect everywhere.

Yes, this is basically what i meant