{"id":543942,"date":"2025-11-02T10:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T10:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/543942\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T10:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T10:07:16","slug":"hospital-workers-in-longest-strike-in-nhs-history-near-nine-months-of-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/543942\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital workers in longest strike in NHS history near nine months of action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phlebotomists at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospital have been taking industrial action since March 17 this year.\"PhlebotomistsPhlebotomists outside Sandford Education Centre in Cheltenham earlier this year(Image: Carmelo Garcia)<\/p>\n

Low-paid health workers involved in the longest strike in NHS history <\/a>are calling for a pay rise “they deserve” as hospital chiefs make an offer.<\/p>\n

Phlebotomists at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospital <\/a>have been taking industrial action since March 17 this year.<\/p>\n

The 37 staff, who take blood samples from patients, have been on strike at the two hospitals now for more than 225 day<\/a>s.<\/p>\n

They began their action after Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust refused to regrade staff who said they had been performing extra duties at work.<\/p>\n

They claim to have been incorrectly placed on the lowest NHS <\/a>pay scale, according to UNISON \u2013 this is disputed by the hospitals trust who say they follow national banding.<\/p>\n

The union also claims that for years the staff have been doing more complex tasks, which those on the higher NHS band three usually perform.<\/p>\n

The phlebotomists say they only want an extra \u00a31.09 an hour which they deserve.<\/p>\n

The health workers also want supervisors who are currently paid a band three to become a band four employee and are calling for back-pay to 2018.<\/p>\n

But hospital chiefs said this could cost them as much as \u00a3450,000.<\/p>\n

The Trust says it uses the national band two phlebotomy role profile, the same as most do across the country, including their partner trust, Gloucestershire Health and Care.<\/p>\n

\"PhlebotomistsPhlebotomists outside Sanford Education Centre in Cheltenham on May 8, 2025.(Image: Carmelo Garcia)<\/p>\n

They have made an offer to the workers of their roles changing to a new band three healthcare support worker role.<\/p>\n

Hospital chiefs say that if this were to be accepted, this would mean that on average a member of staff on strike will be better off by at least 24p per hour and up to \u00a31.09 per hour.<\/p>\n

The hourly rate for band three is \u00a312.75 rising to \u00a313.60 after two years.<\/p>\n

But the phlebotomists are calling on chief executive Kevin McNamara to help bring the dispute to a close.<\/p>\n

Kelvin Willsher, one of the phlebotomists, said: \u201c226 days and counting – Come on Kevin, if you really do value your phlebotomists as you say you do, let\u2019s stop this farce right now – you know what to do, put your money where your mouth is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessie Hoskin, a Green Party <\/a>activist and former councillor, said: “This small group of minimum wage staff have a simple demand – they want to be paid fairly for the work they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of paying them the \u00a31.09 extra an hour they deserve, they feel as if their employer has stonewalled, gaslit and lied to them.”<\/p>\n

\"MainMain entrance at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital<\/p>\n

A Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said the offer they have made is an important step and is being considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trust has made an offer of a new role for more pay, better training, and better facilities for phlebotomy staff,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the offers are an important step, and although the offers have not yet been accepted, we continue to talk and are hopeful that they might provide a route to resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phlebotomists at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospital have been taking industrial action since March 17 this year.Phlebotomists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[110690,3374,12028,112316,14144,105,4348,211,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-543942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cheltenham","9":"tag-employment","10":"tag-gloucestershire","11":"tag-gloucestershire-hospitals-nhs-foundation-trust","12":"tag-green-party","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-nhs","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115479554172937742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}