Hospital staff strike in pay dispute

THE strike picket outside the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Staff at the Royal Oldham Hospital joined thousands of other NHS workers across the country in a four-hour strike over pay this morning.

The staff took action - many for the first time - in protest at the Government’s decision not to give them a recommended one per cent pay rise.

Contingency plans covered the strike period and union members continued to deal with emergencies.

Patients were advised to attend appointments at the Royal Oldham Hospital as scheduled. Midwives, nurses, paramedics, ambulance staff and hospital porters and cleaners mounted picket lines from 7am for four hours.

The strike, the biggest of its kind for over 30 years, will be followed by other forms of industrial action for the rest of the week, ahead of a national protest in London on Saturday organised by the TUC under the banner Britain Needs A Pay Rise.

The dispute involves over 400,000 NHS staff, who have been hit by pay freezes or below inflation rises since the coalition came to power in 2010.