NHS: More Wales strike dates to be announced - nurses' leader

Nurses held their first round of strikes in December

Dates for the next round of nurses' strikes are due to be announced shortly, a union leader has said.

Helen Whyley, director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Wales, said the "best next step" would be for the Welsh government to continue pay talks.

"We feel absolutely at a point where we have no option but to imminently start to talk about next strike dates in Wales," she said.

The Welsh government has offered staff a pay rise of between 4% and 5.5%.

Health Minister Eluned Morgan also put a one-off payment on the table during talks with unions on Thursday.

Ms Whyley told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement that the offer would not be considered, so the next strike dates "are being set... and they will be announced very, very shortly".

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"Obviously for nurses the best next step is the Welsh government changes its approach to settling our dispute, gets back around the table and starts talking meaningfully about a pay offer.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it's on the table at the current time."

Ms Whyley said action was being taken for "patient safety".

"Corridor care, that's absolutely normal, with not enough nurses looking after people," she said.

The union Unite has announced that ambulance workers in Wales will strike on 19 and 23 January

"For years we've just not been investing significantly in the nursing profession. We need to plan for where nurses will go in their careers, not just where they will start."

Ambulance workers are also planning further walkouts this month, according to Richard Munn from the Unite union.

He said industrial action was "very much a last resort" which was taken following "over a decade of real-terms pay cuts".

He welcomed talks with Welsh government but said the the offer was "not enough".

"Our members need a salary increase. A one-off payment only solves the problem temporarily," he said.

ANALYSIS - Nick Servini, BBC Politics Wales

There is a distinct lack of confidence in the comments from Eluned Morgan about any prospects of settling the pay dispute.

Negotiations have only just begun and already the talk is of it being a bridge too far to get a deal in Wales.

The difficulty for Labour ministers is, until now, they have almost given implicit support to the strike by saying they are sympathetic to their pay demands and the UK government needs to reverse a decade of austerity.

But now they have entered the fray with official talks with health unions they have to change that narrative to one of finding a solution which does not necessarily meet the demands of the unions.

It feels like many of the unions may be in the market for a deal but the Royal College of Nursing is taking a firm stance.

The leadership insists it does not accept that only Rishi Sunak can find the money, saying this is a Welsh problem that should be dealt with in Cardiff.

It is very difficult to see where a breakthrough comes.

Eluned Morgan says the one-off pay offer was the "beginning of a discussion"

Ms Morgan said real-terms pay cuts were due to a decade of austerity measures at a UK level.

She said the one-off pay offer was the "beginning of a discussion".

"It maybe that we can't get very far but we are trying our best," she told BBC Politics Wales.

"I think the Welsh public understands that how much we are able to spend on health in Wales is a direct consequence of how much they spend on health in England.

"We can tweak it around the edges but in reality that is the case."

Russell George, health spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives, said: "We have got to see the minister end this rhetoric of blaming the UK government for what is her responsibility.

"The Welsh government has to start negotiating seriously on pay and conditions."

Plaid Cymru health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth said his party had identified extra money which would allow the Welsh government to increase its pay offer to the health workers.

"I agree entirely with the Labour minister that the UK government has not provided the resources but we heard Eluned Morgan say it's very difficult to find the money, of course it's difficult but it is not impossible," he said.