Strike by the operating room nurses at St. Thomas

Operating room nurses in two central London hospitals will go on strike because of the extension of their shift times, the Unite union said.

Around 50 theatre nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ day hospitals will go on strike on 27 June and 2 July after their shift end time was changed from 8pm to 9pm.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said: “Our members understand the pressures the NHS is under, but the solution is not to make staff work until they collapse.”

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has been contacted for comment.

“Crisis point”

The union says staff are already “chronically overworked” and changing shift times “jeopardizes patient safety because they are exhausted.”

The union added that theatre staff shifts had already been extended from 7pm to 8pm and that they had also started working on Saturdays to support additional theatre lists.

One operating room nurse said: “Staff in the day surgery departments at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals are striking because they are fed up with their concerns about burnout and patient safety being repeatedly ignored by managers.”

“The situation has now reached a critical point and nurses feel they have no choice but to go on strike to protect themselves and their patients.”

Across the UK, 7.57 million people were on NHS waiting lists at the end of April; 300,000 of them have been waiting for over a year.

Ms Graham added: ‘The surgical nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas were already at the end of their strength.

“They worked beyond their shifts to ensure patients received appropriate care.

“The leadership of Guy and St. Thomas must find another way.”

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