Nurses across Liverpool will walk out today as part of the first ever national strike action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
Members of the RCN at all Liverpool's hospitals will walk out today, with another day of action due to be held on Tuesday, December 20.
Royal College of Nursing members working on Agenda for Change contracts at hospital trusts across the country will be on strike today. This includes Liverpool's main hospitals - the Royal, Aintree, Broadgreen, Alder Hey Children's Hospital and Liverpool Women's Hospital - 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.
RCN boss Pat Cullen said staff had been backed into a corner over Number 10’s refusal to improve their pay. She told a Mirror summit of trade union leaders: “I want the public to realise this is for them. Stick with us. We are desperately trying to change the health service for you. Please don’t turn against us.
“I just want the public to know that this has been very difficult for nurses and I’m dreading Thursday, because leading my brilliant profession on to picket lines because they have been left in this position has been very hard.”
Ms Cullen accused Health Secretary Steve Barclay of being “disrespectful and disingenuous” after she revealed he refused to even discuss pay at crunch talks on Monday.
She added: “It’s the first time in 106 years we are having a strike because this government has turned its back on nurses. And when you turn your back on nurses you turn your back on patients. These people held us together through the pandemic and kept
us alive."
One striking Liverpool nurse told us why she and others are walking out today. Carmel O'Boyle said: "This was a horrendous decision to make and it is a decision that none of us wanted to take. I feel physically sick thinking about it, I can't believe the government has let it get this far. They could put a stop to this at any minute.
"This isn't just about pay, it's about patient safety - there is not enough of us, we have patients lying in corridors and every nurse I know is pulling extra shifts. This winter is already horrific and it's going to get more horrific. Hospitals are full to the brim, we as nurses want to be able to properly care for our patients."
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