Latest news with #ProfNicolaRanger
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurses threaten strikes in vote on ‘grotesque' pay deal
Nurses will consider strike action as a vote on the profession's 'grotesque' 3.6 per cent pay rise opens. Almost 350,000 nurses across the UK will vote on whether to accept or reject the pay award for 2025-26 from Monday. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it was the biggest single vote of the profession ever launched in the UK. It comes as the Government faces a summer of discontent with doctors already balloting to strike, and teachers and airport staff threatening disruption. Last month, the Government said NHS staff on the agenda for change banding system, which includes nurses, would receive a pay uplift of 3.6 per cent this year, after accepting the recommendation of the pay review body. But the profession was incensed after resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, were told they would be getting 5.4 per cent on average on top of the 22 per cent rise they received last year. The RCN said the award for nurses was 'grotesque' and that the pay rise would be 'entirely swallowed up by inflation'. It said the outcome of the vote would inform its next steps, which could include a ballot to strike. Doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces will all be receiving a bigger increase. The vote will include RCN members working in the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland, where nurses accepted an eight per cent rise over two years to ensure they remain the best paid in the UK. Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN general secretary, will tell an international conference in Helsinki, Finland, that she is 'with nurses from around the world today asking why it is our ministers in the UK who have once again put nursing at the back of the queue when it comes to pay'. 'Nursing is an incredible career, but despite being the most valued profession by the public we continue to be weighted to the bottom of the NHS pay scale and are set to receive one of the lowest pay awards,' she said. 'It is time to show that nurses are valued and, from today, hundreds of thousands of nursing staff working in the NHS will give their verdict on whether 3.6 per cent is enough.' The RCN said nurses in England had faced more than a decade of pay erosion since 2010-11, with pay down by a quarter in real terms. As a result, there are more than 26,000 unfilled nursing posts, while student recruitment has 'collapsed' and the number quitting is 'skyrocketing', said the Royal College. Nurses went on strike for the first time in NHS history over the winter of 2022-23, staging four separate two-day walkouts. Under strike rules, unions are required to re-ballot members to continue striking every six months. But the RCN did not secure the required turnout of more than 50 per cent of its members, and so lost its mandate to continue striking in 2023 despite remaining in an official dispute with the Government. Its members previously voted to reject the 5.5 per cent pay award for 2024-25 last year, as well as the five per cent in 2023-24 the year before, which also came with a one-off payment of at least £1,655, despite other unions accepting it. Resident doctors are currently balloting to strike again after demanding the 5.4 per cent increase awarded to them for this financial year is nearer to 30 per cent. The ballot closes on July 7, 2025. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Nurses threaten strikes in vote on ‘grotesque' pay deal
Nurses will consider strike action as a vote on their 'grotesque' 3.6 per cent pay rise opens. Almost 350,000 nurses across the UK will vote on whether to accept or reject the pay award for 2025-26 from Monday, in what The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it was the biggest single ballot the profession has held in the UK. It comes as the Government faces a summer of discontent, with doctors already balloting to strike, and teachers and airport staff threatening disruption. Last month, the Government said NHS staff on the 'agenda for change' banding system, including nurses, would receive a pay uplift of 3.6 per cent this year, after accepting the recommendation of the pay review body. But the profession was incensed when resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, were told they would be getting 5.4 per cent on average on top of the 22 per cent rise they received last year. The RCN said the award for nurses was 'grotesque' and would be 'entirely swallowed up by inflation'. It said the outcome of the vote would inform its next steps, which could include a ballot to strike. 'We are set to receive one of the lowest pay awards' Doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces will all be receiving a bigger increase than nurses. The RCN vote will include members working in the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland, where nurses accepted an 8 per cent rise over two years, to remain the best-paid in the UK. Prof Nicola Ranger, the RCN general secretary, will tell an international conference in Helsinki, Finland, that she is 'with nurses from around the world today asking why it is our ministers in the UK who have once again put nursing at the back of the queue when it comes to pay'. 'Nursing is an incredible career, but despite being the most valued profession by the public we continue to be weighted to the bottom of the NHS pay scale and are set to receive one of the lowest pay awards,' she said. 'It is time to show that nurses are valued and, from today, hundreds of thousands of nursing staff working in the NHS will give their verdict on whether 3.6 per cent is enough.' The RCN said nurses in England had faced more than a decade of pay erosion since 2010-11, with pay down a quarter in real terms. As a result, there are more than 26,000 unfilled nursing posts, while student recruitment has 'collapsed' and the number quitting is 'skyrocketing', said the Royal College. Nurses went on strike for the first time in NHS history in the winter of 2022-23, staging four separate two-day walkouts. Under strike rules, unions are required to re-ballot members to continue striking every six months. But the RCN did not secure the required turnout of more than 50 per cent of its members, and so lost its mandate to continue striking in 2023 despite remaining in an official dispute with the Government. Its members previously voted to reject the 5.5 per cent pay award for 2024-25 last year, as well as the 5 per cent in 2023-24 the year before, which also came with a one-off payment of at least £1,655, despite other unions accepting it. Resident doctors are currently balloting to strike again after demanding the 5.4 per cent increase awarded to them for this financial year is nearer to 30 per cent. The ballot closes on July 7 2025.
The Guardian
13-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
People in mental health crisis waiting up to three days in A&E in England
Thousands of people in a mental health crisis are enduring waits of up to three days in A&E before they get a bed, with conditions 'close to torture' for those in such a distressed state. At one hospital, some patients have become so upset at the delays in being admitted that they have left and tried to kill themselves nearby, leading nurses and the fire brigade to follow in an attempt to stop them. A&E staff are so busy dealing with patients seeking help with physical health emergencies that security guards rather than nurses sometimes end up looking after mental health patients. The findings are included in research by the Royal College of Nursing. Its leader, Prof Nicola Ranger, called the long waits facing those in serious mental ill health, and the difficulties faced by A&E staff seeking to care for them, 'a scandal in plain sight'. Its findings, based on freedom of information requests to NHS trusts in England and evidence from senior nurses, found that at least 5,260 people a year in a mental health crisis wait more than 12 hours for a bed after a decision has been made to admit them – up from barely 1,000 in 2019. The RCN's research into 'prolonged and degrading' long stays in A&E also disclosed that: Some trusts that previously had no long waits for mental health patients now have hundreds. The number of people seeking help at A&E for mental health emergencies is rising steadily and reached 216,182 last year. The recruitment of mental health nurses has lagged far behind the rise in demand. The number of beds in mental health units has fallen by 3,699 since 2014. Rachelle McCarthy, a senior charge nurse at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust, said: 'It is not uncommon for patients with severe mental ill health to wait three days. Many become distressed and I totally understand why. I think if I was sat in an A&E department for three days waiting for a bed I would be distressed too.' The director of nursing at a London trust said the 'brightly lit, noisy' environment in her A&E was 'close to torture' for those in mental distress and that patients often got so frustrated that they left. A senior nurse in the south-west of England said: 'Lots of people will just come and wait and be patient. But as you can imagine, some of them are in severe crisis. They want to leave. They want to self-harm. They are massively distressed and struggling.' In 2019 Manchester Royal Infirmary had no 12-hour waits before finding a bed for a mental health patient after a decision had been made to admit them. But last year 463 experienced such a delay, the RCN found. Alexa Knight, the director of England at the Mental Health Foundation thinktank, said the findings showed that too few people with mental ill health were receiving help soon enough after they started struggling. She said the NHS needed to ramp up provision of community-based early intervention services, to reduce the risk of people ending up in such crisis that they went to A&E. Ranger urged ministers to ensure 'urgent and sustained investment in community mental health nursing [to] ensure everybody gets timely care in the right place'. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The NHS statistics obtained by the RCN seriously underestimate the extent of waits longer than 12 hours and also the number of people seeking help at A&E for a mental health emergency. That is because only 26% and 52% of the 145 NHS trusts from which they sought information provided figures on those two issues. Minesh Patel, the associate director of policy and campaigns at the mental health charity Mind said: 'Long wait times in A&E can be difficult for everyone. But for the people attending A&E in mental health crisis – and more than 700 do every day – the impacts can be significant. 'When people may have attempted suicide, self-harmed, or experienced psychosis, they need timely and urgent help. They are being let down by a system that is overwhelmed and depleted.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'People with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they deserve, and we know that many NHS staff feel burnt out and demoralised, having been overworked for years. 'That's why this government is investing an extra £680m in mental health services this year, to help recruit 8,500 more mental health workers, and put mental health support in every school. 'We have also launched one of the world's first 24/7 mental health crisis support services via NHS 111 and announced a £26m investment in new crisis centres, to ensure patients can get timely support from a trained mental health professional.' In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Nursing chief hints at summer strike over pay
Nurses could strike this summer if they are not awarded a 'significant' pay rise soon, the nursing union leader will warn on Monday. Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), will tell the Government 'not to sail close to wind' and risk industrial action by refusing nurses a rise. In a speech to the union's annual congress in Liverpool, she will warn ministers: 'If you continue to insult this profession, leave it ailing and underpaid this summer, then you know how this could escalate.' The Government has capped public sector pay rises at 2.8 per cent, but an independent body in charge of reviewing nurses' pay is understood to have recommended a 3 per cent rise – leaving a funding gap that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has said could only be met with cuts to services. 'Summer of discontent' Labour risks a 'summer of discontent', with teachers, resident doctors, other NHS workers, civil servants and university staff all warning of potential industrial action over pay. Nurses are being surveyed by the RCN on whether they approve of the Government's proposed figure and what action – including strikes – they are willing to take, although no official ballot is yet planned. The union said nurses' pay had fallen by a quarter in real terms in the last 15 years. Speaking to 3,000 delegates at the union's annual conference, Prof Ranger will criticise the Government's 'dither and delay', highlighting how a decision on pay was due six weeks ago. She will tell nurses: 'We need a significant pay rise for nursing, and for every NHS employer to be given the full money to pay it – anything else is a cut to patient services. 'I'm not here to tell you we're going on strike. You will decide how you feel and we will plan together the best way to get what nursing needs.' She will also warn that nurse staffing levels are 'dreadfully unsafe' and putting patients' lives at risk, citing how a single nurse was left alone on a shift to care for 40 hospital patients. Crash in number of nurses The NHS faces a crash in nurse numbers as an estimated 175,000 staff – one in five of all nurses in the UK NHS workforce – are expected to retire within the next 10 years, RCN analysis has shown. Describing the situation as a 'ticking time-bomb', the union called for 'stronger financial incentives' to encourage more young people into the profession. Prof Ranger will say Gen Z is being put off a career in nursing by low pay and high studying costs. The union is also calling for the Government to raise nurse starting salaries by 17 per cent – to around £35,000 from the current £29,970 – and to write off student loans on graduation for nurses who pledge to work in the NHS. There are more than 34,000 NHS nursing vacancies in the UK, and figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service have revealed that applications to study nursing have fallen by 34 per cent since 2021. In response to Prof Ranger's comments on pay, a Government spokesman said: 'This Government inherited a broken NHS with an overworked, undervalued and demoralised workforce. 'We hugely value the work of talented nurses and midwives, and through our Plan for Change, we are rebuilding the NHS for the benefit of patients and staff, and ensuring nursing remains an attractive career choice. 'One of the first acts of this Government was to award nurses an above-inflation pay rise for the first time in years, because we recognise that their pay has been hit over previous years. We are carefully considering the recommendations from the NHS Pay Review Body, and will update as soon as possible.'
