Camilla Turner
THE TELEGRAPH
Sun, 15 January 2023
NHS strikes doctors nurses ambulance workers industrial action - Guy Smallman/Getty Images
Public support for striking NHS staff has increased, despite warnings that walkouts put “lives at risk”.
Doctors and nurses are the only professions for which there is now more sympathy for industrial action compared to six weeks ago, a new poll found.
It came as nurses in England prepare for a fresh round of strikes for two days next week, with union bosses saying they have been “left with no choice” after their demands for a pay rise were not met.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) already held two strikes in December, which resulted in 30,000 operations and appointments being cancelled.
On Jan 10, Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, said that striking ambulance workers were putting “lives at risk” as he proposed new laws requiring minimum levels of service from ambulance staff, firefighters and railway workers during industrial action.
However, a poll, carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph, revealed that 59 per cent of British voters said they support strike action by doctors and nurses when asked this week. This is up from 50 per cent when the same question was asked on Nov 30.
Meanwhile, support for all other professions that voters were asked about ebbed away over the same time period.
Public backing for striking rail workers fell from 51 per cent six weeks ago to 45 per cent this week, after a series of crippling walkouts in recent weeks which wreaked havoc on the country’s train network.
Support for striking civil servants dropped from 42 per cent to 35 per cent after the military was called in to cover for Border Force staff walking out over Christmas.
The British public appeared the least sympathetic to lawyers and barristers going on strike, with just over a quarter, 26 per cent, saying they would support them to walk out, down from 38 per cent last time.
Last August, criminal barristers voted to go on strike indefinitely over pay, but they ended it in October after accepting the Government’s improved pay offer.
Philip van Scheltinga, the director of research at Redfield & Wilton Strategies, said: “In the past month, striking nurses have done better than striking rail workers in gaining sympathy from the public.
“For starters, their strikes have been comparatively less disruptive to the public. Hospitals have kept running, while trains have been shut down completely.”
He pointed out that nurses have run a better information campaign regarding their strikes, adding: “They’ve taken great advantage of the rarity of nurses strikes, their primarily female workforce, the unpopularity of the Government – their direct employer – and the public’s predisposition to view the NHS favourably to begin with.”
Junior doctors are threatening to strike for three days in March if they win a ballot on industrial action. The British Medical Association has already said that junior doctors are “very likely” to vote in favour of strikes, as part of a campaign to see pay rise by more than one quarter.
Dr Vivek Trivedi, the co-chairman of the body’s junior doctors committee, said: “The NHS is facing a crisis like no other: patients waiting in corridors, staff breaking down in tears during shifts, and doctors simply not able to offer the care patients deserve.
“The public can see this is not a situation that can continue. They, like doctors, are crying out for a government that will address the crippling staffing shortage that led us here.”
Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the RCN, said: “The public have been unwavering in their support for nursing throughout this dispute. After months of digging in, the Government needs to listen to what the public wants and get round the table and negotiate. The public supports our strike action. As they know, when nurses speak, they speak for patients.”
In an interview with The Telegraph, Ms Cullen said the union would keep striking for “as long as it takes” and expand the walkouts to more NHS trusts unless the Government gives ground.
“If we have to reballot out members after six months [to secure a mandate for more strikes], then that's what we will do,” she said.
She said that RCN members at trusts which narrowly voted against the current strike action now wanted to be reballoted to join the walkouts.
In the interview, Ms Cullen also said that Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, had at times alienated the female-dominated nursing profession by giving the impression “that there is a macho or bullyish approach to how they make decisions”.
“Those sorts of things are not helpful when you’re in a period of negotiation where you’re trying to build up relationships and trust,” she said.
Speaking about Mr Barclay, she said: “It’s his job to listen to me. He has a responsibility. And when you feel constantly that he is turning his back on the profession, it leaves all of us feeling rather nervous about where we’re going.”
The Department for Health and Social Care declined to comment.
Sun, 15 January 2023
NHS strikes doctors nurses ambulance workers industrial action - Guy Smallman/Getty Images
Public support for striking NHS staff has increased, despite warnings that walkouts put “lives at risk”.
Doctors and nurses are the only professions for which there is now more sympathy for industrial action compared to six weeks ago, a new poll found.
It came as nurses in England prepare for a fresh round of strikes for two days next week, with union bosses saying they have been “left with no choice” after their demands for a pay rise were not met.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) already held two strikes in December, which resulted in 30,000 operations and appointments being cancelled.
On Jan 10, Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, said that striking ambulance workers were putting “lives at risk” as he proposed new laws requiring minimum levels of service from ambulance staff, firefighters and railway workers during industrial action.
However, a poll, carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for The Telegraph, revealed that 59 per cent of British voters said they support strike action by doctors and nurses when asked this week. This is up from 50 per cent when the same question was asked on Nov 30.
Meanwhile, support for all other professions that voters were asked about ebbed away over the same time period.
Public backing for striking rail workers fell from 51 per cent six weeks ago to 45 per cent this week, after a series of crippling walkouts in recent weeks which wreaked havoc on the country’s train network.
Support for striking civil servants dropped from 42 per cent to 35 per cent after the military was called in to cover for Border Force staff walking out over Christmas.
The British public appeared the least sympathetic to lawyers and barristers going on strike, with just over a quarter, 26 per cent, saying they would support them to walk out, down from 38 per cent last time.
Last August, criminal barristers voted to go on strike indefinitely over pay, but they ended it in October after accepting the Government’s improved pay offer.
Philip van Scheltinga, the director of research at Redfield & Wilton Strategies, said: “In the past month, striking nurses have done better than striking rail workers in gaining sympathy from the public.
“For starters, their strikes have been comparatively less disruptive to the public. Hospitals have kept running, while trains have been shut down completely.”
He pointed out that nurses have run a better information campaign regarding their strikes, adding: “They’ve taken great advantage of the rarity of nurses strikes, their primarily female workforce, the unpopularity of the Government – their direct employer – and the public’s predisposition to view the NHS favourably to begin with.”
Junior doctors are threatening to strike for three days in March if they win a ballot on industrial action. The British Medical Association has already said that junior doctors are “very likely” to vote in favour of strikes, as part of a campaign to see pay rise by more than one quarter.
Dr Vivek Trivedi, the co-chairman of the body’s junior doctors committee, said: “The NHS is facing a crisis like no other: patients waiting in corridors, staff breaking down in tears during shifts, and doctors simply not able to offer the care patients deserve.
“The public can see this is not a situation that can continue. They, like doctors, are crying out for a government that will address the crippling staffing shortage that led us here.”
Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the RCN, said: “The public have been unwavering in their support for nursing throughout this dispute. After months of digging in, the Government needs to listen to what the public wants and get round the table and negotiate. The public supports our strike action. As they know, when nurses speak, they speak for patients.”
In an interview with The Telegraph, Ms Cullen said the union would keep striking for “as long as it takes” and expand the walkouts to more NHS trusts unless the Government gives ground.
“If we have to reballot out members after six months [to secure a mandate for more strikes], then that's what we will do,” she said.
She said that RCN members at trusts which narrowly voted against the current strike action now wanted to be reballoted to join the walkouts.
In the interview, Ms Cullen also said that Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, had at times alienated the female-dominated nursing profession by giving the impression “that there is a macho or bullyish approach to how they make decisions”.
“Those sorts of things are not helpful when you’re in a period of negotiation where you’re trying to build up relationships and trust,” she said.
Speaking about Mr Barclay, she said: “It’s his job to listen to me. He has a responsibility. And when you feel constantly that he is turning his back on the profession, it leaves all of us feeling rather nervous about where we’re going.”
The Department for Health and Social Care declined to comment.
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