HEALTHCARE support workers in Swansea Bay have voted for strike action, their union said today.

Unison Cymru Wales said staff at hospitals in Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot are to strike for two days over pay. 

Staff at eight hospitals in the area, including Neath Port Talbot, Morriston and Singleton, are set to walk out on December 10 and 11.

According to NHS guidance, healthcare support workers on salary band 2 should only provide personal care such as bathing and feeding patients.

But the union said the healthcare assistants undertake clinical tasks such as monitoring blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.

Unison Cymru regional organiser Lianne Owen said: “Healthcare support workers are some of the lowest-paid staff in the NHS.

“Yet they are routinely expected to carry out complex duties for which they’re not being paid.”

A Swansea Bay University health board spokesperson said: “We remain committed to our ongoing dialogue with Unison locally, and to resolving and progressing matters by working with our wider NHS colleagues and trade union partners across Wales.”