Downing Street says there are “no plans” to review the pay deal for nurses in response to the strike.
England’s chief nurse says she would like to see a resolution to nurses’ strikes as soon as possible, as tens of thousands of nurses take action across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Staff have expressed anger that they feel forced to strike for more pay.
The UK government says the Royal College of Nursing’s pay demands are unaffordable.
Nurses got an extra 3% last year after the pandemic and another rise recommended by a pay review body.
The strikes have been held in around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales. Nurses in Scotland are not striking on Thursday while they consider a pay offer from the Scottish government.
England’s chief nurse Dame Ruth May met striking nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. A video on Twitter sees her calling for the government to “make sure they work with the RCN and other unions to get an urgent resolution to pay”.
Downing Street said she was not speaking for the government and had her own views as chief nurse.
Dame Ruth also thanked nurses working on wards around the country “this day and every day”, adding that they would continue to “ensure minimal risk to patient safety”.
Pat Cullen, head of the Royal College of Nursing, called it “a tragic day for nursing and for patients” and asked the government to address pay this year to “stop the drain out of our profession”. More strikes by nurses are planned on 20 December and in the new year.
She said nurses were “asking for the 20% that has been taken out of their pay over the last decade”.
Speaking outside a hospital in London, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the government was “hugely grateful” to nurses but the 19% pay rise they wanted was “not affordable given the many other economic pressures that we face”.
He said three-quarters of trusts had not gone on strike on Thursday and many nurses had continued working in areas excluded from the strike because of the risk to life.
Earlier on Thursday, health minister Maria Caulfield said around 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries would be lost in England because of the strike.
Under strike rules, emergency care must still be provided, for example in intensive care and A&E, and urgent cancer treatment and dialysis should run as normal – which means the biggest impact will have been on routine services. These include planned knee and hip replacements and out-patient appointments.
‘We’re not asking for much’
On a freezing cold day, nurses started their walkout at 07:00 in Wales, followed by colleagues in England and Northern Ireland an hour later.
Sarah, a nurse at University Hospital Wales in Cardiff, said: “I don’t think any of us want to be here this morning.”
She said their dispute was over pay, but it was also much more than that.
“It’s about safe staffing, it’s about attracting new nurses into the profession and that is essentially why we are here,” she said.
Nurses told the BBC why they had decided to strike and lose a day’s pay.
Rebecca, a nurse striking outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London, said her job was “too tiring, it’s too much, it’s just not safe for either the staff or the patients to continue the way it is now”.
Under-staffing was a major concern for Kelly Hopkins, who has been a nurse for 25 years in Liverpool, as well as the financial struggles of her colleagues.
“They’re having to use food banks, they’re coming in cold, they’re going without food to feed their children, it’s just crazy,” she said.
But Richard Knowles, a psychiatric nurse, says he resigned in protest at the latest strike action because he thinks it is not safe for patients.
He still remembers an industrial dispute when he started his training in 1982 when he was left alone on a ward of 40 severely mentally ill patients with one nursing assistant.
“I just vowed at that time that I would never go on strike or join a union that advocated strike action,” he said.
How are patients being affected?
- People who are seriously ill or injured, and whose life is at risk, should call 999 as usual, or call 111 for non-urgent care
- Other services, such as some cancer treatments, mental health services or urgent testing, may be partially staffed
- More routine care is likely to be badly affected, including planned operations such as knee and hip replacements, community nursing services and health visiting
- Official advice is that anyone with an appointment which has not already been rearranged should turn up at their allotted time
BBC East’s health correspondent Nikki Fox said Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge had cancelled 2,000 appointments over the two strike days – Thursday and Tuesday.
She said the hospital had apologised to patients and promised to get appointments rearranged as soon as possible.
BBC Wales health correspondent Owain Clarke says around 1,000 appointments or treatments have been cancelled across Hywel Dda health board sites in west Wales during the December strikes.
One woman told the BBC how her husband, Neil, would not be getting cancer treatment on Thursday because of the strikes.
“It’s worrying because he’s been very delayed in being diagnosed in the first place due to the pandemic and cancelled appointments all along,” she said.
This video can not be played
To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
In England and Wales, most NHS staff have already received a pay rise of roughly £1,400 this year – worth about 4% on average for nurses.
The political situation in Northern Ireland meant there was a delay in processing the increase – but nurses should receive backdated payments before the end of the financial year.
The RCN wants a larger rise, of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which currently stands at 14%, saying its members have received years of below-inflation pay increases.
The government says it has followed the recommendation of the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which said in July NHS staff should receive the £1,400 increase, with slightly more for the most experienced nurses.
The RCN has criticised this body for not being independent enough. It is made up mainly of economists and human resources professionals.
Welsh ministers said they were unable to enter pay talks without extra funding from the UK government.
In Scotland, the RCN’s strike action was “paused” after ministers made a fresh offer worth just over £2,200, or 7.5%, a year for most NHS staff. Nurses have been asked to vote on that deal, with results due next week.