UK: Health secretary to meet 6 unions to avoid strikes across NHS
Author : Saipriya Iyer | Published Date : 2022-11-16
The health secretary of the UK will reportedly meet with unions that represent hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals in order to prevent the wave of strikes that is expected to hit the NHS in the coming weeks.
Earlier this week, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, invited six unions to a "round table" discussion that will take place at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in central London, close to the Houses of Parliament, to discuss workforce challenges.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the GMB, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), Unite, and Unison are among the invited unions.
As per sources, it will be Barclay's first conference as a group with the key unions intending to hold strikes across the UK this winter if ministers do not provide NHS staff with a salary increase at least equal to inflation, which is presently at 10.1%.
However, Barclay did speak with the RCN last week, following the previous day's poll outcome, which supported nurses' going on strike at most of the hospitals and other care facilities starting before Christmas.
Given the disagreement between the government and unions over the size of the raise that NHS staff should receive, this week’s meeting seems unlikely to result in a settlement. Moreover, Barclay has proposed at least $1666 per head, or a 4%–5% raise, to about 1 million NHS employees for 2022–2023.
Rachel Harrison, the national secretary of the GMB stated that the state secretary must make this more than a box-ticking process if he aims to prevent a historic winter of NHS strikes.
According to credible sources, the first round of nationwide industrial action by NHS unions will begin with GMB members who work for the Scottish ambulance service.
As reported by the former DHSC special consultant, up to 3 million surgeries could be postponed in England alone as a result of hospital strikes.
Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/15/health-secretary-to-meet-six-unions-in-bid-to-avert-wave-of-strikes-across-nhs
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Saipriya Iyer . .
Saipriya Iyer presently works as a content developer for fractovia.org. Having dabbled with the domain of content creation for nearly half a decade, she now boasts of an enviable portfolio, holding substantial experience in penning down pieces related to technology, finance, and a wide spectrum of other industry verticals. A qualified computer engineering graduate from the University of Pune, Saipriya can often be found leveraging her knowledge of software technology and electronics in her write-ups. She can be contacted at- [email protected] | https://twitter.com/saipriya_i
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