The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the government
said the first talks would start on Wednesday when health
minister Steve Barclay would meet RCN representatives.
"Both sides are committed to finding a fair and
reasonable settlement that recognises the vital role that nurses
and nursing play in the National Health Service and the wider
economic pressures facing the United Kingdom and the Prime
Minister’s priority to halve inflation," the statement said.
The move could cancel a
48-hour strike planned by the RCN for March 1
involving nursing staff working in emergency departments,
intensive care units, cancer care and other services who did not
take part in earlier walkouts.
The RCN held a series of two-day strikes in December, January and earlier this month.
Britain is experiencing its largest wave of strike
action in decades, involving hundreds of thousands of workers
from a range of professions and piling pressure on Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak to settle the disputes, many of which
involve the public sector.
The RCN has been pushing for a pay rise which better
reflects the worst inflation in Britain in four decades, while
the government has so far said that such pay rises would only
fuel inflation, causing interest rates and mortgages to go up.
Despite Tuesday's announcement, the NHS is set to face the strain from a strike planned for next month by tens of thousands of junior doctors in England, who earlier in the week voted in favour of
further walkouts.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman and Muvija M; editing by William
James)
