Northern Ireland

Unison nurses at Altnagelvin to go on strike today

Health workers striking outside the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald. File picture by Mark Marlow
Health workers striking outside the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald. File picture by Mark Marlow Health workers striking outside the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald. File picture by Mark Marlow

NURSES at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry are to join strike action today over low staffing levels and pay.

Nurses who are members of trade union Unison will join picket lines at the major hospital as industrial action by healthcare workers continues.

Workers have gone on strike as well as taking work-to-rule action over the last few weeks.

Industrial action continued on Friday after healthcare workers rejected a new pay offer.

Thousands of surgeries and appointments have had to be cancelled as a result of disruption across the health service.

Today 900 routine outpatient appointments have had to be cancelled across hospitals in Belfast.

Unison regional secretary Patricia McKeown said its nurses are "the first to the picket lines in this dispute".

Ms McKeown said the strike continued because the Department of Health did not offer workers parity with their counterparts in Britain.

"Whilst we don't accept the department's position that they need ministerial authority to grant workers pay parity, we have also asked the party leaders to write directly to the department telling them to implement pay parity and resolve this dispute," she said.

"If the department thinks it needs political cover then we don’t see why this won’t give that to them."

Today's strike will involve nurses and nursing assistants at Altnagelvin and administrative staff, occupational therapists, housekeepers and estates staff at Belfast City Hospital

The Royal College of Nursing will take industrial action short of strike for 48 hours tomorrow and Wednesday. However on December 18 RCN members are due to strike for the first time in the union's 103-year history.

Meanwhile, the British Medical Association has warned the safety of patients is at risk due to a drop in the number of GPs.

Figures from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) show GP numbers in the UK have fallen by almost 1,000 in the last four years.

Dr Richard Vautrey from the BMA said the figures were concerning.

"As we've said time and time again, there are simply not enough GPs to meet demand and guarantee safe, quality care to patients," he said.