Nurses are set to go on strike again across England in January in an ongoing dispute over pay.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union held two strikes in December, which resulted in 30,000 operations and appointments being cancelled.
The RCN is demanding a 19 per cent pay rise, which has been dismissed as “unaffordable” by the Government.
Commenting on the upcoming walkouts, Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary, said: “The Government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas, but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January.
“I do not wish to prolong this dispute, but the Prime Minister has left us with no choice.
“The public support has been heart-warming and I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing to do for patients and the future of the NHS.”
She added that the “voice of nursing will not be ignored” and that the “sooner ministers come to the negotiating table, the sooner this can be resolved”.
When are the next nurses strikes?
- Wednesday, January 18
- Thursday, January 19
As the next walkouts are being held on consecutive days, they could cause greater disruption than the first two days of strikes on December 15 and 20.
Despite claims that up to 100,000 nurses would strike in December, figures for England show that less than 12,000 nurses did.
However, some nurses who wanted to strike may not have been rostered to work, while others will have been obliged to work in services exempt from the action.
Which hospitals will be affected?
The next wave of strikes will involve more trusts – around one in three will be involved, up from one in four in December.
In total, 55 trusts in England will be affected by strike action, up from 44 when strikes took place before Christmas.
There will be no strikes in Wales and Northern Ireland this time.
Unions have said that the agreements made to protect specific services in the December strikes will not be automatically be rolled over.