It is the first strike action in the Royal College of Nursing’s 106-year history.

On 15 December, around 100,000 nurses and midwives across England, Northern Ireland and Wales went on strike for 12 hours. Another strike in England and Wales took place on 20 December.

The strikes were repeated on 18–19 January.

Nurses and midwives are demanding a pay rise of five per cent above inflation, which is running at 14 per cent. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says that their pay fell by six per cent in real terms over the last decade and lags behind nurses and midwives in other developed countries.

The strikes are about more than money, say experts.

“Pay is the lightning rod; it’s attracting all the energy,” Jim Buchan of the Health Foundation told The Economist.

But it “cannot be disentangled” from working conditions, he said.

During COVID an enormous number of nurses left the NHS.

Figures published by the NHS in September revealed a shortage of 47,496 nurses, meaning nearly 12 per cent of jobs are unfilled. Those who remain must work harder, as they tackle a waiting list that has ballooned from 4.6 million to 7.2 million in early 2020.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said the strike was “a difficult decision taken by hundreds of thousands in a bid to be heard, recognised and valued”.

In a recent RCN survey, only 18 per cent of nurses said they had enough time to provide the quality of care they would like to.

A survey by pollster YouGov found that almost two-thirds of Britons supported the nurses’ strikes.

Key facts that explain the British nursing strike

• Typical salaries for nurses have fallen by 5.9 per cent in real terms compared to 2010/11 levels
• Depending on how inflation changes, the Nuffield Trust – a health research institute – predicts that nurses’ real-terms pay this year will fall to around 10 per cent below levels in 2010/11
• The average nurse in England earned around £35,989 (A$63,045) a year prior to the latest pay settlement
• There are an estimated average of 17,000 nursing posts unfilled on any given day in the NHS
• 1 in 9 nurses left active service over the course of a year between 2021 and 2022 in England.

‘Pay is the lightning rod; it’s attracting all the energy.’ — Jim Buchan of the Health Foundation