Nurses will demonstrate outside Guy's Hospital on Wednesday amid a bitter row over changes to shift times.
It comes after theatre nurses at the NHS Trust began a three-day strike yesterday over claims that their shift times had been extended by an hour to 9pm.
Unite said that nurses had been left facing “burnout and exhaustion” and meant that staff are working up to an extra two hours beyond their usual finish time.
The union’s regional officer regional officer, Tabusam Ahmed, said: “Our members are taking strike action as a last resort. They know that strike action will result in cancelled operations and increased waiting lists but they have no choice. The new shifts pose a danger to both staff and patients.
“Senior management at Guys and St Thomas have refused to listen to our members concerns it is now imperative that the board takes action to ensure a fair resolution can be reached.”
Nurses were set to gather outside the hospital in London Bridge at 2pm to coincide with the Trust's board meeting.
A spokesperson for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust told the Standard: “The vast majority of our theatre nurses will continue to finish at 8pm, as they have for the last ten years.
“We would strongly encourage Unite to end their refusal to join talks with Acas and to find a resolution that will benefit staff and patients.”
It is understood that some theatre lists are required to run longer than the traditional end time to maximise capacity for patient surgery.
The Trust has proposed that nurses are rostered with staggered starts and finishes with the latest scheduled finish time being 8pm.
However, they say that some staff will be rostered for “standby shift” from 8pm to 9pm, typically once or twice a month.
Anyone rostered for these shifts will receive an additional flat payment, according to the Trust.
The Trust argued that the changes had come in response to staff who said they were being asked to work beyond their normal hours once or twice a month on average.
