STRIKING Day Surgery nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust are holding a demonstration at 2pm today at Guy’s Hospital entrance, St Thomas’ Road in central London.
This is the second day of their latest two-day action in a series of strikes against the trust’s attempts to impose an unagreed extension of Day Surgery nurses’ working hours to 9pm!
The Unite members issued a statement yesterday, saying: ‘Over the years the Day Surgery workload has steadily increased.
‘We moved from 7pm to 8pm finishes and started Saturday working. Day Surgery is now open from 7am to 8pm, six days a week.
‘We have taken this on, at a cost to our own wellbeing without complaint.
‘But this latest change in hours, pushing our finishing time back to 9pm, goes too far.
‘We fear a 9pm finish will mean we are kept at work later, and our work-life balance will be impacted.
‘Our workload has no defined limit and any parameters to ensure patient safety, such as staff-to-patient ratio have never been applied to our working conditions.
‘If we agree to a later finish, we will be staying behind to 10-11pm at night when theatre lists overrun.
‘Day Surgery nurses are chronically overworked and are now compromising patient safety because we are exhausted.
‘Our concerns over burnout and patient safety have been repeatedly ignored by managers.
‘Our suggestions as to how to manage the service safely have been repeatedly ignored by managers.
‘We know waiting lists are long, but this is due to Covid, and the chronic underfunding of the NHS.
‘The solution cannot be to make staff work longer and harder.
‘The situation has now reached a crisis point and we have no option but to strike.
‘We strike to protect ourselves and our patients!’
On the picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital yesterday, Day Surgery nurse and Unite member Ellen, told News Line: ‘We are burning out. They recently added Saturday. Now if we agree to 9pm that will become 10pm, because we don’t leave our patients if they need us.’
Dave Bell, from Keep Our NHS Public, said: ‘The government’s answer to long waiting lists is to make doctors and nurses work longer hours and to use more private companies. Health Secretary Wes Streeting wants to send people to private hospitals.’
Announcing today’s demonstration, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The leadership of Guy’s and St Thomas’ cannot keep burying their heads in the sand over unsustainable workloads. Our nurses cannot carry on meeting the excessive demands being placed on them.
‘Staff are on the verge of burnout and patient safety is being put at risk. Our members will not be moved and Unite is supporting them all the way.’
Unite regional officer Tabusam Ahmed said: ‘This dispute will continue to escalate until the trust’s leadership puts forward an acceptable solution.’
The nurses previously took strike action on 27 June and 2nd and 9th July. Guy’s and St Thomas’ in central London is one of the UK’s busiest NHS trusts with 2.6 million patient contacts each year.
