NURSES are to hold two days of strike action next month in a dramatic escalation of the NHS pay row.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced its members will stage their first ever national walkouts on December 15 and 20.

Strikes will take place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after the British government turned down offers of formal, detailed negotiations as an alternative to industrial action.

The RCN said it will announce which particular NHS employers will be striking next week, when formal notifications are submitted.

In Scotland, the RCN has paused announcing strike action after the government there reopened NHS pay negotiations.

The RCN announced earlier this month that nursing staff at the majority of NHS employers across Britain had voted to strike over pay and patient safety.

The union said that despite a summer pay rise of around £1,400, experienced nurses are worse off by 20 per cent in real terms due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: “Ministers have had more than two weeks since we confirmed that our members felt such injustice that they would strike for the first time.

“My offer of formal negotiations was declined and, instead, ministers have chosen strike action. 

“They have the power and the means to stop this by opening serious talks that address our dispute.

“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 said the economic argument for paying nursing staff fairly was clear when billions of pounds were being spent on agency staff to plug workforce gaps.

It added that in the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the country left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.

Poor pay has contributed to staff shortages across Britain, which the union warned was affecting patient safety.

There are 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in England’s NHS alone, said the RCN.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “The RCN’s demands, which on current figures are a 19.2 per cent pay rise, costing £10 billion a year, are not affordable.”