Nurses strike - midwifery

[BecksOclock]

Will this affect maternity wards in December? I understand and believe the nurses 100% deserve a pay rise, but I can't help but feel extremely scared at the prospect of giving birth on one of the strike days. Does anyone know what would happen?

I suspect it will be specific days rather than blocks of days but yes it will affect Midwives.

How would this affect elective sections, would they be cancelled?

My maternity unit is already very short staffed, and a friend who gave birth there and had to stay in for a couple of nights, said it was a very stressful stay as she could see how stressed and understaffed the team was. Said the entire unit felt very tense.

Horrendous working environments for staff, who aren't paid anywhere near enough. But it's hard not to feel anxious about the situation if there are a number of strike days.

I'm due December too, now I'm wondering what happens if I go into labour on one of the strike days....

The royal college of midwives haven't even balloted yet. It will be 4 weeks from
The 11/11. Then a week or so to count. Then negotiations, then striking.

Speaking about the Scottish strike the rcm said The RCM said if strikes went ahead, NHS employers in Scotland would be given notice of any type of industrial action to ensure there is adequate cover for work shifts.

Agency staff will cover it

I'm due in December to this is worrisome. However they will have contingency plans and the NHS employers work with the unions to make sure that minimum staffing is in place so that strikes are safe, they know when in advance and agency cover can be arranged.

Critical services will be maintained but elective c sections are likely to be delayed (or potentially brought forward)

I wouldn't worry too much. Staff will be diverted from routine clinical care rather than emergency care like birthing centres, labour wards ect ect. The birthing centre I was supposed to go to was closed due to staffing shortages when there was no strike action and the same happened to my friend at another centre. Staff levels are so low at the moment I don't even think staff members will feel it.

My sisters giving birth late December her pregnancy has been so long waited and now I’m nervous about these strikes. Nurses and midiwives deserve better pay and working conditions. I just pray that my sister and her baby are okay.

I have discussed this with a colleague who’s sister is a midwife and is being asked to consider striking. She was told that if you are on the rota to work, you cannot strike in order to ensure safe staffing levels. You can only strike if not on the rota, but can’t cover staffing shortages. This seems a bit pointless from an action point of view, but if true, sounds safe, well as safe as day to day staffing levels are. Not sure this is the case though.

If this is true, is there any point to a strike as it won’t affect anything? If this is fact, I think think the public would be more sympathetic if they knew this was the case. There has been quite a bit of nurse bashing locally over the possibility of strike action, most of whom were happy to clap on a Thursday evening whilst staying safe in their homes.

I personally think something needs to be done before we have no nurses or midwives left. I’m not sure what or how though.

There may be a bit of change with elective sections and inductions.

But in general they'll make sure the unit is staffed. If you've planned to strike but should be working, you'll still work, but wearinga pin to say your striking, you'll take your full break, arrive on time, leave on time.

On our unit we have a minimum staffing plan in case of strike action.

The numbers are higher than what we are currently able to staff daily 🤷🏼‍♀️

Strike action is moreso to raise awareness amongst the public for nurses and doctors. They never staff less than usual levels in the hospitals. That means either some nurses won't strike or more consultants come in to cover junior doctors. Truth is the NHS staff know their peers couldn't handle the pressure if striking meant you wouldn't t be at work. The media just love to shift the blame on healthcare workers and the public fall for it. It happened with the junior doctor strike and there were zero repercussions as a result. Clinics were cancelled by consultants on the day but that meant patients either got seen the day before or after and most patients weren't even aware of this change as the consultants just added in another clinic that week and cancelled their admin time.

@Cakewineorgin l struggle to believe that’s true. I’m a nurse and we can’t even be asked if we plan to strike by our employer. Never mind make us attend work

Nurses and midwives are under different unions (RCN and RCM). Only the RCN (nurses) have balloted and called strikes so far, so the strikes that have been announced in December will not affect midwifery services.

The RCM are balloting soon though so may well announce midwife strikes soon.

The RCM is in the process of balloting in regards to a strike. So unlikely to effect anything in December.

She was told that if you are on the rota to work, you cannot strike in order to ensure safe staffing levels. You can only strike if not on the rota, but can’t cover staffing shortages. This seems a bit pointless from an action point of view, but if true, sounds safe, well as safe as day to day staffing levels are. Not sure this is the case though.

Yes, this was the case in 2014, the last (and only?) time midwives went on strike. It is a bit pointless from an action point of view, but what's the alternative? Tell labouring women to cross their legs? You don't have much leverage if you're responsible for patient safety 🤷🏼‍♀️

No, it’s a different union. I’m in the midwives union, I don’t think we’ve been balloted yet though there is a union letter on the side I haven’t opened yet.

When the midwives went on strike 8 years ago all essential services were covered. So Labour wards and postnatal and antenatal wards were fully staffed. But no antenatal clinics and no routine community midwife clinics (but postnatal home visits went ahead).

RCN aren’t the only nurses union. There are a number of different ones we can pick from. Not sure about midwives?

You have been misinformed 🙄

RCN aren’t the only nurses union. There are a number of different ones we can pick from. Not sure about midwives?

the RCM is the only midwifery union and I did think that the RCN was the only nursing union though of course nurses can join a general union such as UNISON.

@Cakewineorgin managers cannot tell you whether or not you can strike so this is misinformed. The trust has a responsibility to cover staffing for 'emergency' patient care (anything that is unplanned is covered by that term e.g. labouring women). As it stands the midwives Union have not balloted to strike yet so services will be relatively unaffected by the nurses strike. They may however rearrange elective sections that are scheduled on those days as there are theatre and recovery nurses involved in those cases and it will only be staffed to cover emergency cases needing to come to theatre. The staffing will be no different to that of a night or weekend.

The RCN are striking on the 15th and 20th December. I can’t imagine that this will impact you very much if you have a straightforward birth as maternity wards and delivery units are staffed by midwives. There may be some impact in operating theatres and special care baby units. We only found out the strike days on Friday though and our trust haven’t yet discussed the logistics of how the days will work. I know that our medical colleagues are planning to step up to support us, like we did when they went on strike. Hope all goes well.

Hopefully the government will agree a fair pay deal for nurses (and midwives) and the strike days won't go ahead.
I saw how stretched all the staff were during and after my labour, it's no wonder the NHS can't hold onto staff