Which hospitals will be affected by the nurses strike on 15 and 20 December in the Anglia region?

The Royal College of Nursing has given the Government five days to open “detailed negotiations” on pay or it will announce strike dates for December.
Nurses will go on strike on 15 and 20 December. Credit: Press Association

Nurses are preparing to walk out of hospitals and healthcare settings over fears low pay and understaffing is putting patients at risk.

The Royal College of Nursing balloted its members earlier this year after the government announced a below-inflation pay increase for NHS workers.

The RCN said strike action was "a last resort" for nurses but they believed low pay was leading to chronic staff shortages across the UK which "puts patients at risk and leaves nursing staff overworked, underpaid and undervalued".

In the East of England, these are the trusts which will be affected by the nurses' strike.

On 15 and 20 December, staff will walk out between 8am and 8pm at:

  • Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge

  • Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge

  • Kettering General Hospital

  • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

  • Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

  • Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

  • NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB

  • Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Some ares of the NHS are exempt from strike action, under the unions' pledge to maintain "life-preserving care".

That means chemotherapy, dialysis, critical care units (such as intensive care and high dependency), neonatal, paediatric intensive care and paediatric A&E will continue to be staffed.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the RCN's demand for a "massive pay rise" was "simply neither reasonable nor affordable".

He said he felt "immensely grateful to our amazing NHS nurses", and said he would "always do my utmost to support nurses in the vital work they do".

He added: "They care for us when we are at our most vulnerable, and show compassion and kindness each day. During the pandemic, they demonstrated exemplary commitment through the greatest challenge the NHS has faced in its 74-year history."

But he urged unions to consider the impact of striking on patients.

"We are facing a difficult winter for our whole country and industrial action is in nobody's best interests," he added.

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