Carstairs nurses in strike threat

Nurses at the hospital will be balloted over strike action within two weeks

Hundreds of nurses at Scotland's state hospital are threatening to strike over changes to their working conditions.

Health unions said staff at Carstairs, which caters for high-risk psychiatric patients, were having to work 17 more days a year for no extra pay.

Nurses claimed the new rota could put their safety at risk, but NHS bosses said they were legally required to make the changes.

Scottish ministers urged both sides to resolve the dispute through talks.

If the 365 staff balloted vote in favour of industrial action, it would cut the workforce at the hospital, in Lanark, by half.

Staff want to keep the shift pattern as it is as they feel it's the safest, most secure way of delivering care. Bridget Hunter, Unison

Bridget Hunter, of healthcare union Unison, said morale at the hospital, which employs about 700 people, had been low for some time.

She said: "The action of management appears to be deliberately provocative and totally contrary to the partnership approach that is supposed to operate in NHS Scotland.

"Staff want to keep the shift pattern as it is as they feel it's the safest, most secure way of delivering care."

Negotiations broke down at a crunch meeting on Thursday ahead of the changes, due to come into force in June

'Crunch meeting'

Nursing staff will be balloted within a fortnight over industrial action, which unions said could take place within six weeks.

A Carstairs spokesman said the current shift system fell foul of European working laws.

But he said of the new proposals: "We could make improvements to this with agreement between management and staff but, unfortunately, the unions are refusing to discuss it with us."

Recent Carstairs patients include John Johnstone, who raped and killed a young woman a decade ago in the Royston area of Glasgow.

Michael Clark, who ran over his brother in a tractor in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, and Joseph Boyle, who knifed a man to death in Glasgow, were also sent there.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "As an employment matter, this issue remains the responsibility of the board itself.

"We are currently liaising with both sides to encourage them to get back round the table to resolve this, and naturally we expect all partners to work together to reach a speedy resolution."