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More strikes will be announced for nurses that will see twice as many workers take action in February if talks with the government do not progress soon, union bosses have warned.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union said new strikes would be announced if wage negotiations remained stalled by the end of January.
All eligible members in England would see a strike for the first time, making it the RCN’s largest to date.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen insisted the public supported the nurses in their pay dispute with the government, and blamed the prime minister for his “perplexed” approach to the negotiations.
The union initially demanded a 19% wage increase, although it indicated it might accept 10%, but Downing Street considered instead a one-off payment.
With no sign of a breakthrough, Rishi Sunak’s administration is pushing for new anti-strike laws that require minimum levels of service on strike days.
Cullen said ministers risked forcing nurses to leave the health service en masse.
“Nurse shortages are costing lives – Sunak cannot put a price on a safe NHS,” she said.
Read more: Everything you need to know about the January strikes, the history of the strikes, and what they achieved
4:16 Were the previous strikes successful?
February 6th is dedicated to a possible strike
Members are likely to take action on February 6, the RCN said, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of an investigation into how nurse shortages affect patient mortality.
The Robert Francis investigation, which focused on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, revealed hundreds of patients were neglected at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2009.
Some elderly people are left on their own urine, unable to eat, drink, or take essential medications.
Francis warned that the current NHS crisis is “playing mediocre staff nationally, if not worse”.
Read more: ‘Distressed area’ as patients left to die in hospital corridors, and outrage over death of woman who waited 15 hours for ambulance
0:52 A&E employees “100% shut down”
There is no sign of the end of the labor wave
The latest threat comes from the RCN union before the strike on Wednesday and Thursday, when nursing staff from more than 70 NHS unions are set to strike.
This includes 55 trusts in England that did not participate in the first wave of work in December.
If RCN members strike in February, they will join nurses in Wales who are already expected to take action.
There are currently no planned strikes in Northern Ireland, where Stormont has no executive, or Scotland, where negotiations with the Holyrood government are still ongoing.
It all comes amid a much wider scope than the industrial strikes that have occurred during the winter so far, involving everything from railroads and postal workers to civil servants and bus drivers.
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