Around 15,500 nurses in Northern Ireland are taking strike action over a pay dispute and patient safety.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) represents about 9,000 nurses who walked out at 8:00am Wednesday, the first time the union has taken strike action in its 103-year history.
The RCN strike is set to last for 12 hours while many Unison health staff members, including nurses and paramedics, are staging a 24 hour strike.
About 6,500 other nurses, who are members of Unison, walked out earlier.
It follows weeks of industrial action by other healthcare workers over the same issues.
Christian Dr John Kyle told Premier the lack of political leadership has been a major factor in the problem with Northern Ireland’s healthcare: “The health service throughout the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland is under extreme pressure and stress, but it has also suffered from three years of lack of political leadership.
“It has struggled with being under resourced. There is also a significant and severe staff shortage and the employment terms and conditions in Northern Ireland are inferior to those elsewhere.”
Dr Kyle explained how the situation is worse than in the rest of the UK: “Currently nurses are not paid as much as they are in the rest of the United Kingdom and so staff retention is difficult and staff morale is low, meaning agency staff are being used and that is a…
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