Government looks more and more listless as nursing strikes threaten to escalate - The Yorkshire Post says

Nurses from A&E, intensive care and cancer wards could now join fresh strikes in England as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) considers stepping up industrial action over pay.

It’s negligence on the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) part that the situation has been allowed to get this far.

There would be some sympathy for the DHSC if it was up against a militant union with a history of agitating for more pay. But in its 106-year history the RCN has never taken industrial action until the end of last year.

It should shame the Government that nurses have had to go on strike in the first place, let alone the nursing union potential escalating industrial action. Especially given the sacrifices that nurses made at the height of the Covid crisis.

Politicians of all stripes would do well to remember that, especially those in the governing party. This isn’t an ideological battle of ideas but one of values of fairness and decency. But people could be forgiven for not holding out much hope for a settlement that would allow nurses to get back to the vocation that they have dedicated themselves to through such difficult times.

As the PM parades around at Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs), which supposedly form a key part of his plans for tackling capacity issues in the NHS, perhaps the Government can answer why there’s little clarity around where these centres will be located in the future. The DHSC couldn’t even understand that neither Gateshead nor Workington are in Yorkshire. It’s not a surprise that the crisis in the NHS continues to rumble on.