INTENSIVE care nurses are to escalate strikes in response to fire-and-rehire contract changes at Bassetlaw and Doncaster Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Unite said today.

The union said that the trust was threatening to dismiss the nurses from their current contracts and rehire them on new ones on Friday this week.

The new contracts would require them to rotate between Bassetlaw hospital and Doncaster Royal Infirmary in an attempt to decommission Bassetlaw’s intensive care services “by stealth,” Unite said.

The nurses will strike from next Monday to Friday, having begun action short of strike action on November 13.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The trust’s abhorrent fire-and-rehire threats have only made the nurses more determined to fight against this blatant attempt to run down Bassetlaw’s ICU [intensive care unit].”

The trust’s chief nurse Karen Jessop said: “Bassetlaw hospital sees fewer very sick patients and a short-term rotation with Doncaster is the safest and most effective way to keep those specialist skills up-to-date.”