Nurses at one of London’s largest NHS trusts will hold a series of protests this week as they continue strike action over safe staffing.
Around 100 nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust are taking industrial action over “unsustainable” increases to shift times.
Unite formally entered a dispute with the Trust in June and held strikes in July.
The union claims that nurses have been left facing “burnout and exhaustion” as their shift times have been extended by an hour to 9pm.
Strikes will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Protests will be held at Downing Street, The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and London Bridge Hospital.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The changes to shift times at the trust mean they are at the sharp end of reckless attempts to reduce waiting lists, with no apparent concern for the health and wellbeing of the staff providing the care.
“Working devoted staff into the ground will make things worse, as dedicated NHS workers leave for the sake of their own health. That is the nurses’ message to Guys’ and St Thomas’, which must reintroduce sustainable hours, and to the government, which cannot expect to fix the NHS by shovelling ever increasing demands onto already exhausted staff.”
Guys and St Thomas in central London is one of the UK's busiest NHS trusts with 2.6 million patient contacts each year.
The Standard has contacted the Trust for comment.
During the most recent round of strikes in July, the Trust said the “vast majority” of theatre nurses would continue to finish at 8pm and urged 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.
