Staff across two Bedfordshire hospitals say they are being asked to perform medical tasks above their pay grade, such as inserting cannulas. Hundreds of NHS emergency hospital staff are expected to take part in strike action in a dispute over pay and rebanding of roles. Some 400 workers at the Bedford and Luton & Dunstable hospitals will walk out for 48 hours from 07:30 GMT. The union Unison said healthcare assistants were being asked to carry out clinical tasks without extra pay.
On its website, the trust, which runs both hospitals, said the action over its rebanding of roles would "have an impact", including possible delays in outpatient services, but no patient appointments were being cancelled. Unison said healthcare assistants in salary band 2 of the pay scale should only be providing personal care and not undertaking clinical tasks. It argued that jobs such as taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas were for band 3 staff