A huge strike by tens of thousands of nurses starting this Sunday will be cut short.
It comes as the government took the nurses to court and a high court judge ruled that the plans were partly unlawful.
The ruling prompted RCN leader, Pat Cullen, to condemn government for ‘taking its own nurses to court’
Watch her comments here…
Lawyers working for Steve Barclay, the health secretary, won at the high court on Thursday in arguing that the RCN didn’t have a mandate for the planned 48-hour strike that was due to end at 8pm on Tuesday 2 May.
Barclay said: “I firmly support the right to take industrial action within the law – but the government could not stand by and let plainly unlawful strike action go ahead. Both the NHS and my team tried to resolve this without resorting to legal action, but unfortunately, following a request from NHS Employers, we took this step with regret to protect nurses by ensuring they are not asked to take part in an unlawful strike.
“We welcome the decision of the High Court that the Royal College of Nursing’s planned strike on 2 May is illegal.
“The government wants to continue working constructively with the Royal College of Nursing, as was the case when we agreed the pay offer that was endorsed by their leadership. We now call on them to do the right thing by patients and agree derogations for their strike action on 30 May and 1 April.”
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Map
As this news breaks Dr Julia Grace Patterson has been sharing out a map that exposing MPs’ interests in private healthcare.
She shared the map and wrote: “Our public healthcare system is collapsing. NHS patients and staff are being profoundly failed, and this is what many MPs are doing. Let’s spread the word.”
Where did they get data from?
On Every Doctor website they write: “Our main source of information was NHS England’s provider directory and registers of licensed healthcare providers; last updated on the 24th February 2022.
“We also visited each provider’s website (linked to in each record) to locate the postcodes of their individual locations. Where this information was not available, we contacted the providers directly to request it; we are waiting to hear from all of them.”
They also noted: “Research by the University of Oxford published in The Lancet, found conclusively that “Private-sector outsourcing corresponded with significantly increased rates of treatable mortality”.
“It also impacts sustainable long-term caring relationships between properly supported NHS staff and their patients.”
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