MADRID, December 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Nursing staff in the UK began an unprecedented twelve-hour strike on Thursday for better working conditions and a pay rise.

This was the first strike from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in its 106 year history, and has already managed to call up to 100,000 members on strike in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and will continue in the next second. call next tuesday.

RCN, a union which represents around 500,000 UK nurses, is campaigning for a five-point wage increase above inflation, which in current figures equates to a 19 per cent increase. In addition, he asked the Government to close a number of staff vacancies that would endanger the patient’s health.

Health workers will continue to serve emergency situations, not as well as routine services or planned operations, which have been suspended since this Thursday from 08:00 local time. According to RCN, health workers had no other choice after the government refused to reopen salary negotiations.

On the executive front, Health Secretary Steve Barclay has acknowledged the “stress” on the National Health System (NHS), especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but defended the government’s actions taken so far, skynews has gathered.

“There’s a lot of pressure, especially in terms of seven million people waiting for surgery, and I don’t want to take money from patients waiting for those surgeries. It’s important for us to set up new surgical centres, organize new diagnostic centres,” Barclay said.