A senior Royal College of Nursing figure has said nurses "agonised" over voting to strike - but did so due to the pressures they are facing and because many have been forced to use food banks to survive.
Karl Norwood, an operational manager for the RCN in the North, told ChronicleLive that the ballot, results of which were announced on Wednesday, was a "historic moment". He said: "It's the first time the RCN has ever recommended to its members to strike. But it's also a sad moment, that it's come to this. During the ballot, most nurses have agonised over this.
"But the RCN and nurses themselves have been warning that they have not been valued for the past ten years, during which time nurses pay has fallen in real terms 20%. The impact of that is that we are in the situation where we have 47,000 nursing vacancies in England.
"Our nurses tell us there are not enough of them to deliver safe care. It's impacting on patient care and leading to worn down, burnt out nurses. That's essentially it and it's got to a point where enough is enough."
Votes among nurses at four of the five North East acute NHS hospital trusts - Northumbria Healthcare, Newcastle Hospitals, Gateshead Health and County Durham and Darlington - met the threshold to trigger strike action. This was also the case at the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) - but not at the region's two mental health NHS trusts or at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust.
Strike action at the trusts where the threshold has been met will take place before Christmas, the RCN has warned. On Thursday the union's general secretary Pat Cullen met with Health Secretary Steve Barclay briefly for "constructive" talks thought to have focussed on patient safety and minimising disruption. He is not thought to be willing to move on pay.
Karl added that the erosion in NHS nursing pay over the past two decades - research commissioned by the union found for some experienced nurses it had fallen 20% in real-terms over the last ten years - had left NHS workers struggling. He added: "We have heard stories of NHS trusts setting up food banks for their own staff and nurses being a big part of that workforce. That's not an unusual story - it's a very real situation happening in lots of trusts around the country."
He said the Government continued to need a proper workforce plan, and a "progressive pay structure" which would help with retention of nurses - he pointed to hove 25,000 nurses had left the profession in the last year.
Speaking about the mood on the front line, he added: "There's a deal of pride that nurses have been brave enough to take this step, but also sadness - no nurse wants to strike. To the general public what we are asking for [a pay rise of RPI inflation + 5%] might seem huge, but it's on the back of over a decade of below-inflation pay deals. As a society we can't afford that - we need a strong nursing workforce."
On Thursday Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said pay demands from unions representing nurses are “not affordable". In Blackpool, Mr Sunak told broadcasters: “I absolutely share everyone’s respect and gratitude for our nurses, for the dedication and the hard work that they provide for all of us.
“And I think where we are now is, that the unions are asking for a 17% pay rise, and I think most people watching will recognise that clearly that’s not affordable."
The RCN’s mandate to organise strikes runs until early May 2023, six months after members finished voting. A number of other health service unions are balloting over strike action. This includes Unison staff across the NHS and Unison and GMB members at NEAS. Junior doctors in the British Medical Association are preparing for a strike ballot in early 2023.
The rules around the ballot means that technically strikes take place on a trust by trust basis - and the precise nature of action is likely to be negotiated on at trust-level. The RCN has previously made clear critical and lifesaving care will not be affected.
The Government said it has contingency plans for dealing with any industrial action by nurses amid the growing threat of widespread strikes in the NHS.
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