Nurses at all Liverpool hospitals will walk out on strike on two days next month as part of the biggest ever industrial action the profession has ever seen.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Aintree, Broadgreen, Liverpool Women's Hospital and other city sites will walk out on December 15 and 20 in a row over pay - with one city nurse telling the ECHO: "All we want is to be able to afford to live."
Royal College of Nursing members working on Agenda for Change contracts at hospital trusts across the country will be walking out. This includes Liverpool's main hospitals as well as the city's heart and chest hospital, the Walton Centre, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and the Mersey Care mental health trust.
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The RCN has repeated calls on the UK government to accept its request for negotiations to resolve the dispute over pay and patient safety. The union said the number of NHS employers affected by the action will increase in January unless fresh talks are held.
One nurse in Liverpool, who asked not to be named, spoke about her reasons for going on strike next month. The mum said she has been forced to turn to foodbanks to help feed her children with costs soaring.
She said: "I'm a senior nurse, I have a degree and I've been doing this for 12 years and I can't afford to get by. Some people will criticise us but I would love them to come and try and do what we do, we're in dire straits.
"I love my job and I'm proud to work for the NHS, I believe in it, but I am struggling to pay my bills. I was embarrassed going to a foodbank in my uniform. I'm panicking and feel physically sick when I think of the situation I am in. All we want is to be able to do our jobs safely and to afford to live."
Speaking about the planned walk-outs, RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: "Ministers have declined my offer of formal pay negotiations and instead chosen strike action. It has left us with no choice but to announce where our members will be going on strike in December.
"Nursing is standing up for the profession and their patients. We've had enough of being taken for granted and being unable to provide the care patients deserve. Ministers still have the power and the means to stop this by opening negotiations that address our dispute."
The RCN said that despite this year's pay award of £1,400, experienced nurses are worse off by 20% in real terms due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010.
The RCN is calling for a pay rise of 5% above RPI inflation, saying the economic argument for paying nursing staff fairly is clear when billions of pounds is being spent on agency staff to plug workforce gaps. The union pointed out that in the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register, which explains why there are 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in the NHS in England.
Other unions representing health workers including ambulance crews, midwives and hospital cleaners, are also balloting their members on strikes.
Interim chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said: "Nobody wants to see strikes when the NHS is about to experience what may be its hardest ever winter but we understand how strongly nurses feel and why it has come to this.
"We urge the Government to act fast and talk to nurses and union leaders to find a way to avert strikes. Trusts up and down the country have been planning for industrial action. Not all of them will be affected directly but those that are will do everything in their power to minimise disruption for patients."
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