Great Ormond Street Hospital declares incident over safety ahead of nurses strike

‘These children have no voice in the debate and we must protect them’

A teenager with behavioural difficulties and mental health problems is “living” on a children’s ward at a hospital because no “suitable” accommodation can be found (Alamy/PA)

A major hospital has declared an “incident” over fears for patient safety ahead of a strike by nurses this weekend as a key union voted to accept the government’s latest pay offer.

Great Ormond Steet Hospital for Children (GOSH) said the move, which could see some patients transferred to other hospitals or sent home, was aimed at ensuring essential care during the latest walkout.

Thousands of nurses, represented by the Royal College of Nursing, (RCN) are set to strike from 8pm on Sunday to 11.59pm on Monday, with no services exempt from action. This means for the first time nurses in A&E, critical care and cancer care may strike, across 125 NHS trusts.

Health workers in the GMB union voted in favour of the government’s pay offer on Friday, meaning the end of health strikes for most workers could be in sight.

So far, GMB, Unison, the Royal College of Midwives and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists have all voted for the deal. The RCN, Unite, and Society of Radiographers have voted against it.

Mat Shaw, chief executive of GOSH, said: “We respect the right of our staff to take part in lawful industrial action, but after exhausting all options, at the moment we have serious concerns over how we will safely staff our hospital during the strike.

“There is nothing more important than the safety of our patients and so we have no choice but to declare a business continuity incident.

“These children have no voice in the debate and we must protect them. We urgently need safety exemptions for our intensive care units and other areas of the hospital.”

The NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, last week urged the union to reconsider its decision to remove strike derogations for critical services.

NHS Providers, which also represents hospital leaders, warned the strike is “posing unprecedented risks and challenges” for trust leaders.

Despite RCN members voting against the deal, which would see staff get a 5.2 per cent pay rise this year, both the GMB and Unison have voted to accept.

The GMB said 56 per cent of its members had voted to accept and 44 per cent voted to reject the deal meaning it will now opt to accept the offer at a meeting of the NHS Staff Council on Tuesday.

All union representatives will now have to take their decision to the NHS staff council for a final vote. Each union will have a different proportion of the votes depending on their membership size.

Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “This new pay offer would not have happened without the strike action taken by ambulance and other GMB health workers.

“Our members recognise that progress has been made – from the government originally offering nothing, health workers will be thousands of pounds better off. It also meets a key GMB demand of a huge pay uplift for the lowest paid, lifting them above the real living wage.

“But so much more needs to be done for workers if we are all to get the NHS we need. GMB now needs action for our ambulance members - starting by addressing their retirement and unsocial hours enhancements concerns.

“Today is just one step in the battle to restore NHS workers’ decade of lost earnings.”