Industrial action update | News and events

Industrial action update

At present, no NHS Trust / ICB within Norfolk & Waveney or Suffolk will be affected by strike action on 15 and 20 December – and therefore no services will be impacted as these are normal working days for our organisations.

It remains imperative that any members of the public that need care continue to come forward and attend their appointments across these days, especially in emergency and life-saving cases.

Further information

Following recent ballots for industrial action from a range of unions we are able to officially confirm that only members of the following unions have reached a position to lawfully hold strike action in NSFT: 

• Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). 
• Members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). 

Neither UNISON or GMB have met the legal threshold in their industrial action ballots and therefore cannot lawfully undertake strike action in NSFT at this time. 

The ambulance staff in England have also announced that they have voted for strike action, however the East of England service will not be participating as they did not reach the threshold for action at this time.

We're not expecting strike action from any other unions that we recognise as part of our constitution.

Those NHS Trusts and ICBs affected by Royal College of Nursing (RCN) strike action on 15 and 20 December in the Eastern region are:

• Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust
• Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
• NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB

We are working with partners across the Norfolk and Waveney and Suffolk and North East Essex integrated care systems (ICS) to ensure there is minimal disruption to patient care and that emergency services can continue to operate as normal.