'Our patients deserve better'

Strike action wholly unprecedented in the health and social care sector is taking place across the North, including Derry.

Health and social care professionals from UNISON, UNITE, NIPSA, GMB, Royal College of Midwives (RCM), Society of Radiographers (SoR), and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) will be on the picket line today and Friday.

The co-ordinated strike action is being taken because of what Conor McCarthy, UNISON regional organiser, described as the “huge frustration at the political failure here to address the issues in health”.

Mr McCarthy told Derry News this failure dated back at least 10 years.

He added: “In addition to that, our members feel the Secretary of State is effectively placing economic sanctions on health workers here to try and use us as leverage to re-establish the political institutions.

“We have money that was already secured and fully funded for health workers via the Barnett Formula Consequentials, when the negotiations were taking place in England. That money was agreed and funded but the Secretary of State is withholding it due to the budget deficit which exists in Northern Ireland. That is entirely unacceptable.

“Health workers didn’t cause the deficit in the budget, so they shouldn’t be penalised for it.

“People are passionate about the Health Service and they are really, really angry on behalf of patients. Our members see the ever growing crisis in waiting lists and people who can’t get access to healthcare and that is hugely frustrating because as health workers we instinctively want to help people. That is why we are in the job.”

The UNISON representative revealed every health worker in the North receives approximately £2,000 less for the same job as health workers in Britain.

He added: “Health workers here are being devalued and undervalued but they haven’t given up and they are going to continue to fight for the Health Service here.

“We challenged the Secretary of State six months ago on his narrative ‘there was no money’. UNISON was able to prove, through the negotiations which happened in England with Steve Barclay (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care), that when they came to an agreement to end the disputes in Health in England with UNISON, RCM and UNITE, that additional money would be given to all four jurisdictions to fund a ‘Health Uplift’ and that included Northern Ireland.

“Six months ago, health workers in England and Wales got their uplift, got their additional covid enhanced payments through that Barnett Formula Consequential process. Northern Ireland did get the money put into our Department of Health and they are withholding it, at the Secretary of State’s request.

“We believe his strategy is to make sure he can place as much pressure on the political establishment here by withholding health workers’ pay and that is completely unacceptable.

“He is costing lives because if we can’t get our members to fill vacant posts and to fill permanent posts, two things are happening. The waiting lists are getting longer and longer because it is leading to a staffing crisis and, in addition, agency costs are going through the roof.”

Mary Lyttle, UNISON’s Foyle joint branch secretary for health is a part-time carer. She will be striking today and Friday.

“Health and social care workers are at the end of their tethers,” she said. “The cost of living has doubled. People are going to foodbanks. I really do not know how anyone with a mortgage and a young family is making ends meet.

“We have more than 2,500 members in the Foyle area in the Western Trust and they are all striking on Thursday. It is going to have a massive impact. It is not going to be good.

“We have an awful lot of people leaving the Trust because there is better pay in the  private sector. There are high numbers of agency workers in the hospitals. I would say, an NHS nurse might be getting £19 an hour and the agency nurse might be getting £35 an hour. They said they were going to stop using agency staff but they haven’t.

“If they gave us a decent pay rise, and brought us into line with NHS workers in England, that would be a start. The situation is getting worse and worse and worse here. Health and safety is also a consideration because we are understaffed and people are coming in from agencies. They are new to the wards and it is like an induction every day.”

Radiographers across the North are also going on strike for 48 hours from 8am this morning, in what the Society of Radiographers (SoR) described as “an effort to tackle the recruitment and retention problems besetting the profession”.

According to SoR, almost 10 percent of the North’s population is waiting for diagnostic tests.

Speaking to Derry News, a SoR spokesperson said: “90 percent of our members who voted in the strike ballot said they wanted to take industrial action in order to secure improvements to pay and conditions, increase recruitment and retention of radiography professionals, and thus cut waiting times for patients.

“Radiography professionals support nine out of 10 patients in Health and Social Care Northern Ireland. They work in diagnostic services, carrying out X-rays, MRI and CT scans, and in therapeutic services, planning and delivering radiotherapy to cancer patients.

“But too few radiographers are being recruited or retained. As a result, 188,881 people in Northern Ireland, nearly 10 percent of the population, are now waiting for a diagnostic test.

“This wait means that treatment such as radiotherapy is delayed, cases become more complex and, for some patients, even a two-week delay can mean the difference between life and death.”

Cora Regan, Northern Ireland national officer for the Society of Radiographers, said: “We hear stories like this again and again. Our members tell us that they regularly work over and above their contracted hours to care for patients and attempt to reduce waiting times.

“Many departmental managers now automatically rota radiographers for overtime – rather than asking for overtime on a voluntary basis – as it’s the only way they can make sure there’s enough staff available.

“At the same time, they’re being paid a salary that has fallen significantly behind what radiographers earn in the rest of the UK. Radiographers in Scotland are now paid 12 per cent more than in Northern Ireland.

“Even in England, where SoR members are due to take strike action again next month, a radiographer’s starting salary is more than £1,300 higher than it would be in Northern Ireland.”

Ms Regan said the pressure to increase working hours, coupled with low pay, meant many radiography professionals were leaving the North, or the profession itself.

“And they are not being replaced in adequate numbers,” she added.

“Taking strike action is never an easy decision. But it’s overwhelmingly clear from our members’ determination to strike for 48 hours that they believe the current situation is unsustainable.

“We need to offer our radiography professionals considerably better pay and conditions if we want to be able to keep them in our hospitals – and avoid patient waiting lists growing even longer than they are already.”

“Radiographers are key to the transformation of health services in Northern Ireland. We believe that these measures will dramatically cut waiting lists, thus improving patients’ care, boosting the well-being of radiographers and saving the HSC millions in agency and outsourcing costs.

“Our members deserve better. Our patients deserve better.”