22.01.15
Hunt chairs Cobra meeting to plan contingencies for NHS strike
Two days of talks between unions and the health secretary have proved unsuccessful as Jeremy Hunt today chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee to put in place contingency plans for next week’s NHS strike.
Talks between union leaders and the Department of Health aimed at averting the industrial action are set to continue tomorrow (Friday). News of the Cobra meeting came within hours of the talks being adjourned on Wednesday evening.
NHE reported earlier this week that Hunt called in the leaders of several unions to discuss the planned 12-hour walkout on 29 January, followed by work-to-rule until 24 February.
The talks continued the following day but little headway was made as the health secretary would not commit to more money for pay.
The unions are taking the action over the government’s decision to reject a 1% pay rise for NHS staff, which was recommended by the independent Pay Review Body last year.
Instead, the government decided to institute a below-inflation 1% non-consolidated pay rise, which the 600,000 staff who receive progression pay increases over 1% would not receive.
Unions held two strikes last year but the Department of Health would not budge, however with hospitals now under pressure due to an unprecedented rise in demand a strike could have a major effect on the health service.
The industrial action planned by Unison, Unite and GMB means ambulance crews will strike from noon until midnight on Thursday 29 January, while hospital workers will walk out from 9am to 9pm on the same day.
It has been reported that the health secretary, after receiving a letter from NHS England, wrote to the unions about “their [NHS England’s] concerns that your current plans will pose a real risk that patients with life-threatening conditions are harmed”.
In particular, Hunt has urged that unions call off the 12-hour strike of ambulance workers that he said would “affect patient safety to an unacceptable level”.
Unison's head of health, Christina McAnea, said: “We share the government’s concerns about patient safety and hope we can have sensible discussions on how to resolve this dispute.
“But it is good that we are still talking about trying to find a way to resolve the pay issue and maintain staffing levels.”
She added: "The crisis in the NHS is not of health workers' making. The last thing they want to do is inconvenience patients, but the cost of denying NHS staff the one per cent pay rise the public knows they deserve is huge.
"Health workers feel taken for granted, their morale is low, years of pay freezes and wages being kept down have made many say they want to leave the NHS. If the health service becomes a place no-one wants to work, it will be the patients that suffer.”
(Image source: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
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