Nurses strike: Blackpool Victoria Hospital staff are not striking - these are the NHS trusts in the North West that will be affected

The organisation would have needed at least 50% of RCN members to vote on strike action, in order to take part in national strikes over pay and patient safety.

An RCN spokesperson said: “Our members there and in other organisations who won’t be part of the strike can be assured that nurses who do go on strike elsewhere will do so to fight for the same common issues – deflated pay, intolerable working pressures and persistent staff shortages that compromise patient care.”

This is the first statutory ballot on industrial action across the UK in the 106-year history of the Royal College of Nursing.

They added: “In organisations where nurses do take strike action, we’ll be working with employers to ensure staffing is maintained in critical and life-preserving services so that patients are protected, but this action is as much about wanting better care for patients, with properly-staffed services, as it is about pay. Fair pay is one of the keys to resolving the dire shortage of nurses.”

Which hospitals in Lancashire will be affected by the nurse strikes?

Many of the biggest hospitals in Lancashire will see strike action by RCN members – including Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Found Trust.

When will the strikes take place?

Industrial action is expected to begin before the end of this year and the RCN’s mandate to organise strikes runs until early May 2023, six months after members finished voting.

Why are nurses going on strike?

Nursing staff were balloted following NHS Agenda for Change pay announcements earlier this year, which left experienced nurses 20 per cent worse off in real-terms compared to ten years earlier.

In the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register. Poor pay contributes to staff shortages across the UK, affecting patient safety. There are 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in England’s NHS alone.

The Fair Pay for Nursing campaign is calling for a pay rise of 5% above inflation (measured by RPI).