Steve Barclay asks to meet RCN chief following union’s ‘double digit’ pay demand

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has asked to meet the head of the Royal College of Nursing following the union’s ‘double digit’ pay rise demand.

Pat Cullen told the RCN’s annual congress in Brighton that Mr Barclay emailed her at 9pm on Monday night requesting a meeting. She said it was important for her attend although it would not be about reopening pay negotiations.

Ms Cullen urged union members to vote for another six months of strikes to force the Government to reopen pay talks. Ministers will be forced to act if nurses give the union a fresh mandate for further industrial action, she told the conference. Ms Cullen said dates had already been chosen in June and July of the union’s 300,000 members vote for strikes.

The RCN has warned that strikes could go on until Christmas, which would force the cancellation of thousands more patient operations and appointments and inevitably add to the growing waiting list backlog. The ballot opens on 23 May and runs for a month.

Ms Cullen said: “Patients aren’t dying because nurses are striking, nurses are striking because patients are dying.”

This story is being updated…