Up to 60 PER CENT of ops were cancelled due to NHS strikes

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Up to 60 PER CENT of ops were cancelled due to NHS strikes – as officials warns co-ordinated walk-outs by thousands of ambulance workers next week will be even worse

Hospitals hit by nurses’ strike cancelled up to 60% of elective procedures
Up to 100,000 nurses joined the picket lines in a row over pay and conditions
NHS bosses said next week, when ambulances strike, will be ‘very challenging’

Up to six in 10 routine operations were called off at hospitals amid the NHS’ biggest ever nurses’ strike, health leaders confirmed today ahead of more walk-outs by nurses and paramedics next week.

Hospitals yesterday cancelled between 40 and 60 per cent of elective procedures, such as hip and knee ops, when up to 100,000 nurses joined the picket lines in a row over pay and working conditions.

It comes as ministers face mounting pressure from their own MPs to resolve the nursing strikes after 70,000 appointments, including some for cancer patients, were called-off.

NEWCASTLE: Members of the RCN on the picket line outside Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said next week — which will see the medics on the picket lines for a second time on Wednesday, followed by paramedics on Thursday — will be ‘very challenging’ for the health service. Pictured: Ambulances parked up outside the accident and emergency department of University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

Ms Cordery told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It’s going to get increasingly difficult for trust leaders to manage this process because we know that the winter is always a very tricky time in the NHS and we know it’s a particularly demanding time.

‘Coming alongside an ambulance strike on the following day, I think it’s going to be a very challenging time next week.’

The nurses’ strike had a ‘significant impact’ on hospitals and patients, she said.

She added: ‘I think we do know that there were some real pressure points around emergency departments, for example, including things like the slow transfer of patients out of those departments.

‘In terms of things like routine operations, so far we’ve heard that probably between around 40 to 60 per cent of those routine operations have been cancelled in places where the strikes were held.

‘So it’s fair to say that there’s been a relatively significant impact and I think it was a very demanding day overall, on the front line in the NHS.’

A total of 44 trusts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland yesterday ran a ‘Christmas Day service’. Cancer patients were among those denied care after the Royal College of Nursing called the first national strike in its 106-year history.

The row is over pay and working conditions, with the RCN demanding a pay rise 5 per cent above RPI inflation — equivalent to a 19 per cent boost.

However, it has indicated it would accept a lower offer.

The Government has so far refused to negotiate on salaries, sticking with its offer of around 4 per cent, or £1,400, which is backed by its independent NHS Pay Review Body.

But the union says the system, which was set up under Margaret Thatcher, is ‘out of date’ and ‘does not work for nurses’.

Yesterday marked the first day of industrial action among the nurses, with a second set for December 20.

The union is also expected to announce more dates for January, unless an agreement is reached with Government. That action could cause even more disruption for patients.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay and Health Minister Maria Caulfield stood by the decision to award nurses a 4 per cent rise.

But Steve Brine, the Conservative chairman of the Commons health and social care committee, and Sir Jake Berry, the former chairman of the Conservative Party, called on ministers to reconsider their position in a bid to avert further chaos.

Mr Brine said it would be a good idea to ask the independent panel to review its advice, which was given before inflation surged amid the war in Ukraine.

The Royal College of Nursing has pledged industrial action on December 15 and 20

This map shows the hospitals where the Royal College of Nursing will hold its first strikes over pay on Thursday 15 and Tuesday 20 December

This graph shows the Royal College of Nursing’s demands for a 5 per cent above inflation pay rise for the bands covered by its membership which includes healthcare assistants and nurses. Estimates based on NHS Employers data

The latest NHS data recorded that about 45,000 nursing posts in England are vacant as of the end of June. London has highest percentage missing, with 15 per cent of nursing posts unfilled

NHS data shows efforts to get more nurses into the health service are only barely keeping pace with the number of experienced nurses quitting

‘Everyone needs to cool it and I think sending it back to the pay review body to have a look would be a sensible answer,’ he told the BBC’s World At One Programme.

He suggested this would be a way for the RCN to step back from its second day of strikes, planned for next Tuesday.

Sir Jake said the Government is ‘going to have to improve its offer’.

He told Talk TV: ‘We need to find a way as a Government, and the union does too, to get to that centre point, that point of agreement straight away.’

But Health Secretary Steve Barclay appeared to rule out any movement during a visit to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Pressed on whether he is willing to discuss pay with the RCN, he said: ‘We’ve been clear that we have an independent process and that is the process we followed.’

The RCN staffed chemotherapy, emergency cancer services, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care.

Some areas of mental health and learning disability and autism services were also exempt, while trusts were told they could request staffing for specific clinical needs.

In adult A&E and urgent care, nurses worked Christmas Day-style rotas.

Nurses braving the cold on picket lines yesterday said they had no choice but to go on strike.

Yoga Sundaram, 28, who works at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, said: ‘Most of us are having to work an extra shift on top of our basic 37.5 hours a week, just to pay the bills.

‘That extra money does not go towards savings or holidays, it’s just to keep our heads above the surface.’

Occupational health nurse Shan Robinson, 53, of Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge – where 2,000 appointments were abandoned due to the walkout – said: ‘We don’t really have much option other than going on strike.

‘We are understaffed because we are losing so many nurses and one of the reasons is low pay.’

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