NURSES at Hampshire hospitals will not take part in industrial strike action next month.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced last week its first strike action will take place on Thursday, December 15 and Tuesday, December 20.

The announcement comes after the government turned down the RCN’s offer of formal, detailed negotiations as an alternative to strike action.

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However, Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (HHFT) which runs Basingstoke, Andover and Winchester hospital, said its staff will not be taking part.

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of HHFT, told the trust’s board of directors at a meeting on November 24: “At Hampshire hospitals there were insufficient votes for industrial action to be taken. This was not the case at neighbouring trusts where industrial action will be taking place.”

She added that the trust is “reviewing business continuity plans” in preparation for the outcome of other unions that have signalled an intention to ballot NHS members to take part in industrial action to “ensure we are able to continue to provide safe patient care”.

The chief executive said the trust is “committed to supporting all of our staff – both those delivering care during this time and those choosing to take part in industrial action”.

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The RCN announced earlier in November that the majority of NHS employers across the UK had voted to take strike action over pay and patient safety.

It says that despite this year’s pay award, experienced nurses are worse off by 20 per cent in real terms because of successive below-inflation awards since 2010.

RCN General secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen, said: "Nursing staff have had enough of being taken for granted, enough of low pay and unsafe staffing levels, enough of not being able to give our patients the care they deserve."

The RCN says the economic argument for paying nursing staff fairly is clear when billions of pounds is being spent on agency staff to plug workforce gaps.

In the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register.