Nurses protesting outside Stormont have said they won’t hesitate to strike again if conditions do not improve.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing gathered outside Parliament buildings on Thursday afternoon over fears the health service was being “decimated”.
Last week, officials at the Department of Health said they were making “difficult decisions” after the budget set by the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris-Heaton Harris.
Expected cuts will include reducing the number of nursing student places in Northern Ireland to 1,025, something the RCN has called an "act of destruction”.
Speaking ahead of the demonstration, RCN Northern Ireland director Rita Devlin said that although the local government elections did not affect the issues they were raising, they still wished to “highlight the need for all parties to work together in the interests of patients, staff and the people of Northern Ireland”.
RCN members will voice their anger at Stormont today about the escalating crisis in health and social care, and the lack of political leadership and accountability for the system in NI. We must recognise this crisis, take responsibility for the human cost and act urgently. pic.twitter.com/BKIMvESQcr
— RCN Northern Ireland (@RCN_NI) May 18, 2023
“The health and social care system in Northern Ireland is being decimated,” she said.
“The financial position is desperate and it is impossible to progress transformation or other long-term measures that are urgently required.
“The cuts to nurse training confirmed by the Department of Health will devastate patient care for years to come.”
She explained that there are currently nearly 3,000 unfilled nursing posts in the Northern Ireland health service, with a similar amount in the private sector.
Ms Devlin said that measures such as safe-staffing legislation were not being progressed because of the absence of government.
“Falling out of pay parity with UK colleagues will have a further, negative, impact on the number of staff leaving the profession,” she said.
“Unless there is immediate progress, RCN members in Northern Ireland will feel they have no alternative other than to return to the picket lines, even though this is the last thing they want to do.”
RCN members in Northern Ireland last joined strike action in December, but their counterparts in England have staged further strikes this year.
The union's general secretary, Pat Cullen, has recently demanded that pay negotiations reopen after members voted to reject a five per cent pay deal.
Several other health unions have since accepted the deal, but Ms Cullen has said that any new pay offer for nurses must start in the double digits.
