Jon Dale, Unite Notts Health branch secretary
The Intensive Care nurses’ strike at Bassetlaw Hospital is intensifying. Their employer, Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Trust, threatened to terminate their contracts on 12 December if they would not agree to new terms. These included working at Doncaster for eight-week blocks.
The nurses have clearly stated that the extra travelling is dangerous and sometimes impossible for them, working 13-hour shifts day and night. It’s also dangerous for Bassetlaw patients – this could be a step towards losing their Intensive Care Unit (ICU) altogether. Without an ICU on site, many other hospital treatments would also be moved away.
Trust management attempting ‘fire and rehire’ is bad enough. But now the Trust is in effect threatening a lock-out. After two days of strikes, nurses worked to rule and refused to be moved off ICU to cover shortages, as they have done out of goodwill in the past.
‘Volunteers’
Management have retaliated by threatening not to pay the nurses for working these shifts. They said the nurses were working like “volunteers”.
However, the Trust did not follow through with the 12 December deadline. A further week of strike action is now taking place, with the prospect of more strikes over Christmas.
There has been a lot of support from the local community, which the nurses plan to build on by leafleting shoppers in Worksop and Retford.
Pressures on all NHS staff are nearing bursting point. With resident doctors striking, and a Christmas strike announced at Cheswold Park secure mental hospital in Doncaster, health workers are making clear they will not continue to put up with ever-growing attacks on pay and working conditions, while unable to provide quality care after years of cuts.
Health trade unions should be organising national action to demand full funding for the NHS, with profit-seeking businesses kicked out.
