STRIKING nurses abandoned A&E, cancer and intensive care patients yesterday as they faced growing pressure to accept a pay deal.
Hospitals had to transfer their sick after RCN staff stayed away and their leaders threatened walk-outs for years to come.
Some refused to go in even after the union agreed 11th hour exemptions — Colchester Hospital in Essex having to “significantly reduce” capacity on its intensive therapy unit.
Health chiefs say the RCN’s 28-hour action, which ended at midnight last night, had taken a “heavy toll” on services.
The union has rejected a five per cent pay rise and one-off payment worth at least £1,600.
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The pay deal, however, has already been accepted by the GMB and Unison, leaving the RCN more exposed when the unions meet employers today at an extraordinary meeting of the NHS Staff Council.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Given that most staff have voted in favour of this deal, it is time to accept it.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay was “cautiously optimistic” of the meeting’s outcome.
He accused the RCN of being “disrespectful” to other unions in striking before it was held.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen hit back, saying the minister had “lost the public and certainly lost any respect that our nursing staff had for him and this government”.
She said there was a “strong possibility” the RCN could strike during pay talks every year.
She added: “It appears that, for our nursing staff, that is the only way that they can get their voice heard.”
Nurses will be re-balloted over action if the deal is not agreed.
Members of Unite, which rejects it, will walk out today at ambulance trusts.