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Nurses deliver petition to Downing Street demanding better pay

With 100,000 signatures from nurses and the public, RCN’s Patricia Marquis visited Number 10 urging Rishi Sunak to address NHS workforce crisis
A petition signed by 100,000 members of the public, nursing staff and patients is delivered to 10 Downing Street

With 100,000 signatures from nurses and the public, RCN’s Patricia Marquis visited Number 10 urging Rishi Sunak to address NHS workforce crisis

A petition signed by 100,000 members of the public, nursing staff and patients is delivered to 10 Downing Street
A petition signed by 100,000 members of the public, nursing staff and patients
is delivered to 10 Downing Street Picture: Alamy

Nurses have doorstepped Downing Street this morning to hand-deliver a petition demanding better pay for nurses.

As prime minister Rishi Sunak marked 100 days in office, the RCN called on him to address the dispute as ‘unfair pay is forcing nurses to leave’.

Members have strike mandate for a further 100 days – RCN

Backed by a petition with more than 100,000 signatures from nurses and the public, RCN director for England Patricia Marquis visited Number 10 this morning calling for Mr Sunak to urgently address the NHS workforce crisis.

Ms Marquis warned that the RCN has a strike mandate for a further 100 days and said they were escalating their pay demands directly to the prime minster as meeting with Steve Barclay had got them ‘nowhere.’

Speaking outside No 10, Ms Marquis said: ‘We want to get a significant pay rise. We are escalating the message directly to Mr Sunak as prime minister. We have met in good faith with Mr Barclay on a number of occasions, which has left us nowhere.

‘We need to focus on the head of government – Mr Sunak and the chancellor – who need to turn their hand, get involved, and find the funding to be able to seek a resolution to get nurses off the picket lines and most importantly to allow them to deliver the care that patients need.’

Nursing staff on picket lines at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield in December
Nursing staff on picket lines at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield in December
Picture: John Houlihan

‘Without nursing staff there will be no NHS’

Alongside the petition Ms Marquis delivered a letter from RCN general secretary Pat Cullen, who told the prime minster that ‘without nursing staff there will be no NHS’.

The threat of further strike action comes as the RCN plans its biggest-ever walkouts on 6 and 7 February , with all mandated members across England, Wales and Northern Ireland returning to the picket lines.

Previously, strike action has been reduced to selected trusts across the nations, except in Scotland where pay negotiations are ongoing with the Scottish government.

More than 10,000 ambulance workers from the GMB union will also join the 12-hour walkout on Monday.

The Department of Health and Social Care has repeatedly said it has accepted the NHS Pay Review Body recommendations on 2022-23 pay and will only discuss the offer for 2023-24, which it is yet to submit evidence for.

Number 10 was contacted for comment.


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