Responding to the minimum service level consultation, RCN Chief Nurse, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“The RCN has always been responsible in taking safe strike action, with concerns for patient safety at its core. However nursing staff will tell you there are not safe staffing levels on non-strike days - and they are sometimes unable to provide the level of service and care patients need.
“Patients are routinely waiting hours for care or ending up being treated in corridors. There are also tens of thousands of unfilled nursing posts. That’s why nurses took strike action – something that has proved to be the only way to get the voice of nursing staff heard.
“We don’t believe these proposals will address the underlying long-term crisis in the NHS workforce and we will respond robustly to the consultation and share our experience of the past 12 months.
“Ultimately we believe the government should be focusing on investing in the nursing workforce – including paying staff fairly and addressing the chronic staff shortages that are damaging the health service.”
Ends
Notes to editors
The government is considering introducing minimum service level (MSL) regulations that would require some doctors and nurses to work during strikes, in order to protect patient safety, the Health and Social Care Secretary has announced today (Tuesday 19 September).
The House of Commons Regulatory Policy Committee found the Strikes Bill is not fit for purpose. Read the RCN response here.
We worked closely with the service to ensure that patients were protected by maintaining emergency care and that is why we believe this proposed extension of minimum service levels in the health service is unnecessary.
The consultation considers introducing MSLs that would cover urgent, emergency and time-critical hospital-based health services – which could cover hospital staff including nurses and doctors - and seeks views on a set of principles for setting MSLs in regulations.
It will also seek evidence to inform decisions on the expansion and scope of MSLs. This follows the consultation earlier this year on introducing minimum service levels in ambulance services and brings the UK in line with countries like France and Italy whose services continue in times of industrial action.
