Nurses in Lancashire are to embark on the most extreme strike action yet as they reject the government’s offer in an ongoing NHS pay dispute.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced that its members will walk out for 48 hours from 8pm on April 30, without any derogations, which means nursing staff working in emergency departments, intensive care units and cancer care will be taking industrial action for the first time.

Nurses at NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, are among those that will be participating in the new strikes.

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust staff will also be on strike. 

Disruption was caused in East Lancashire Hospital Trust following doctor strikes earlier this month.

The escalation followed a 54 per cent vote to reject an offer of a 5 per cent pay rise this year and a cash payment for last year.

Unison’s head of health, Sarah Gorton, said the vote did not solve the “staffing emergency” in the NHS.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen has written to Health Secretary Steve Barclay to seek urgent re-opening of talks with the Government.

She said: “What has been offered to date is simply not enough. The Government needs to increase what has already been offered and we will be highly critical of any move to reduce it.

“Since our talks in February, we have seen the pressures on the NHS continue to increase.

“The crisis in our health and care services cannot be addressed without significant action that addresses urgent recruitment and retention issues and nursing pay to bring this dispute to a close urgently.

“Until there is a significantly improved offer, we are forced back to the picket line.

Lancashire Telegraph:

“Meetings alone are not sufficient to prevent strike action and I will require an improved offer as soon as possible. In February, you opened negotiations directly with me and I urge you to do the same now.

“After a historic vote to strike, our members expect a historic pay award.”

The ballot results were announced as junior doctors in England staged the final full day of a 96-hour strike in a separate row over pay.

The RCN will reballot its members in England to see if they want to continue taking industrial action because the current mandate runs out in early May.

Unite and the GMB will announce the result of their ballots on the same deal in two weeks’ time.