- 06/02/2023
- Posted by: Valerie Vaz MP
- Category: News
This week will see the biggest strike in NHS history. For the first time in this dispute, ambulance workers, nurses and physiotherapists will walk out together in England. The impact will also be bigger than on previous strike days because more hospital trusts are involved. It won’t just affect emergency care as many non-urgent appointments and operations will be cancelled.
Mr Speaker granted an Urgent Question On Monday 6 February 2023 on the NHS strikes. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care made a statement.
I asked a question to the Minister:
“The Minister will know about the ministerial code and about keeping the House updated, so will he tell us when the Secretary of State for Health met Pat Cullen of the RCN? If cannot tell us now, will he write to us and put that letter in the library, please?”
The Minister responded:
“Of course I am happy to do that, and I think these things are put on the public record in any event. I do not know when the Secretary of State met specifically with the RCN, but I can tell the House that I have met the unions, I believe, on 9, 12, 25 and 31 January.”
It is vital to know when the Secretary has met with the RCN as Pat Cullen has asked on numerous occasions to negotiate the pay settlement and end the strikes.