Northern Ireland

'Grave concerns' over impact on patient care by failure to pay nurses adequately, as RCN launches trade dispute

The failure to keep nurses pay in line with the rise on the cost of living has led to concerns over the 'delivery of safe and effective patient care'.
The failure to keep nurses pay in line with the rise on the cost of living has led to concerns over the 'delivery of safe and effective patient care'. The failure to keep nurses pay in line with the rise on the cost of living has led to concerns over the 'delivery of safe and effective patient care'.

THE Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the north has launched a formal trade dispute over pay.

The organisation has notified the Department of Health of the move, which follows a ballot among RCN members earlier this year. They said a pay award announced for 2021/22 by the Stormont executive "fell far short" of calls for a 12.5 per cent rise in pay for nursing staff.

The failure to keep pay in line with rising living costs has led to "grave concerns about its impact on the delivery of safe and effective patient care", the chair of the RCN NI board, Rita Devlin, said.

"Just two years ago, the RCN took industrial action in Northern Ireland over safe staffing and pay parity. As the 2021-2022 pay award did not meet our demand, we are therefore in formal dispute once again. This is not a step that we take lightly but our members are exhausted, disenfranchised and have been left feeling undervalued. The derisory 2021-2022 pay award has served only to strengthen this feeling," she said.

"For years nursing staff have responded to the challenge of delivering safe and effective care in the face of increasing demands on services, shortages of staff and low pay. These issues have been made worse by the pandemic and we have been left with no alternative but to lodge a formal trade dispute on their behalf.

"Nursing is a safety critical profession and today’s action is a formal expression of the frustration and concern for patient safety that nurses are experiencing every day."

A Department of Health spokesperson told The Irish News it was awaiting recommendations on 2022/23 pay increases from the UK-wide NHS Pay Review Body, which are expected in the coming weeks.

"The department accepted, in full, the recommendations of the Review Body in 2021/22 for a three per cent award, maintaining pay parity with England and Wales," the spokesperson said.

"In addition to this, minister Swann allocated a further £27m to support further non-consolidated pay awards for HSC staff, ranging from 1.5 per cent for the lowest paid, to 0.5 per cent to the highest paid – this additional award is currently being processed by the regional payroll team."

They added that Robin Swann has "publicly acknowledged the need to ensure all staff are appropriately paid" when highlighting the "financial pressures and budgetary uncertainty facing our health service".