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NHS trust appeals for nurses’ help as doctors stage walkout

Nursing staff offered extra hours by trust as nurses’ union warns members against undermining junior doctors’ strike action by helping to soften impact on services
Striking junior doctors hold banners outside UCLH during their 72-hour BMA strike in England

Nursing staff offered extra hours by trust as nurses’ union warns members against undermining junior doctors’ strike action by helping to soften impact on services

Striking junior doctors hold banners outside UCLH during their 72-hour BMA strike in England
Junior doctors picket University College London Hospital during their 72-hour, England-wide strike Picture: Alamy

A hospital trust has put out an urgent call for nurses and healthcare assistants to work extra shifts ‘or even just a few hours’.

The appeal on Twitter by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (WHHT) came in the middle of the three-day strike by junior doctors’ in England.

WHHT, which operates three hospitals, urged nurses and healthcare assistants who can spare any time to contact NHS Professionals, the largest provider of NHS bank staff in England. And the trust has assured inpatients their care will continue, with cover provided by consultants and nursing staff.

A spokesperson told Nursing Standard WHHT had prepared for the industrial action, insisting it was not reliant on nursing staff working extra hours.

‘We put calls out from time to time to help fill NHS Professionals shifts. These tweets were to cover our normal nursing workforce requirements over the period of industrial action and could just as easily be applied to any other period.’

Nurses’ union tells members voluntary overtime could undermine doctors’ strike

However, the RCN has reminded nurses they should not undertake work beyond their competence, and urges members to show solidarity with fellow professionals’ strikes.

In a guide to industrial action by other unions, the college asks members not to take voluntary overtime to cover for striking colleagues, or take on any bank or agency shifts to cover the work of those involved in industrial action. The guidance warns nurses against taking work outside of their usual remit because this could undermine colleagues’ industrial action.

‘You cannot be made or required to undertake work outside of your contract of employment. Your employer will have had ample time to make arrangements to cope with any industrial action in your workplace,’ RCN guidance states.

NHS strikes putting services under yet more pressure

Thousands of appointments and non-urgent procedures are expected to be postponed or cancelled in England’s NHS during the industrial action.

Providers are adapting services to manage the absence of junior doctors. At Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for example, Cheltenham General Hospital’s emergency department has been turned into a nurse-led minor injury and illness unit to ensure emergency care is available for the duration of the strikes.

NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor said: ‘Even with consultants and staff from other services working together to fill shifts, emergency care and other departments are still facing very high pressure. Health leaders expect this to continue over the next two strike days and beyond, particularly when those putting in extra work now need to take time off in lieu.’

NHS Professionals was contacted for comment.


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