HUMZA Yousaf has urged the UK Government to provide him with more money to fund pay deals for NHS staff.

He said that even though health and pay negotiations were devolved, that as the “architects of the mismanagement of the economy that has caused a cost crisis,” they had a "moral obligation". 

Yesterday, the Royal College of Nursing revealed that members in every health board in Scotland had voted to strike for the first time in their 106-year history.

The first walk-outs could happen in the run-up to Christmas and could go on until next May.

Nurses in most parts of the rest of UK have also voted to take industrial action. 

Hilary Nelson, an RCN board member who works in intensive care, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland that the situation was “really difficult” for nurses.

“When nurses are coming to work in the morning and of an evening they already know that they are short-staffed. So to wake up every day knowing that you're going in not to have enough people to do the job is quite a feat. 

“Nurses are tired, they're exhausted. They're giving up days off and annual leave to come in and support their teams.

"But not only that, they're coming in to do that, because they cannot pay their bills at the end of the month, because their pay is not keeping up in line with inflation.”

Ms Nelson said the industrial action would be “disruptive” but that the main reason for the strike “is because we are standing up for our patients.” 

“People are already at risk and industrial action won't create any additional risk because we will work very carefully with employers to make sure that we have the right amount of nurses in the right place at the right time. 

“But the point of taking the strike action is to ensure patient safety going forward is enhanced. 

“And as I say, no nurse would take this decision to take industrial action lightly. Many people have agonised over it. I spoke to people who said, 'never in my life would I have thought I would have got to this point, but I have no other option'. 

“And if you do right by the nurses, you will do right by patients because we are their voice.” 

Colin Poolman, the Director of the RCN said there had been "years of underinvestment in nursing" by the Scottish Government.

"The current offer is a pay cut again, in fact, the offer was lower for some of the more experienced staff.

"So at the end of the day, I absolutely understand this is going to be difficult. Our members acknowledge that. And of course, we do have our ask, but we also are open to negotiations.

"But what we can't have is another real terms pay cut for the nurses of Scotland."

Last month, NHS staff in Scotland were offered a flat rate uplift in their salaries of £2,205 each - equivalent to an average pay rise of 7 per cent, or 11% for the lowest paid. 

Mr Yousaf said that to afford the £480m annual cost of the uplift the Scottish Government had to “reprofile” £400m of current health funding. 

He said: “Now that's been through very, very difficult choices that no health secretary, frankly, would ever want to make. We've had to reprofile money away from social care, from mental health, from primary care.”

Mr Yousaf said he was “certainly not fatalistic about the fact that there's an inevitability about strikes.”

“What we can do is look at the £480m envelope and say, well, is there another way that that can be distributed? That if the concern is coming, for example, experienced nurses, then is there something else we can do to redistribute that?

“The other plea I'm making is given that the UK Government are the architects of high inflation costs and this cost crisis, for me, I think they have a moral obligation, quite frankly, to put their hand in their pocket and provide more money to the Scottish Government - and the Welsh Government has made a similar plea too - in order for us to be able to afford these record high pay deals.”

Mr Yousaf said the Scottish Government’s budget was an “open book.”

“People can see line by line where that money has been spent, and how we already are facing significant challenge just in year to have to balance the books, hence why we've had to take those really difficult decisions around health and other portfolios too. 

“So if there are other places that people think we should be taking money from, as I say, our annual budget, is an open book, people can suggest where that money should come from.”

The minister said that while contingency plans were in place, nurses walking out would “be catastrophic at this time, more than any other time.” 

“I think it's difficult for anybody to suggest that it wouldn't have an impact. And that is, of course, the purpose of a strike, it's to cause a level of disruption.” 

The strike was raised during First Minister's Questions, with both the Tories and Labour calling Mr Yousaf to be sacked. 

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “Scotland’s NHS is in crisis and whoever the SNP try to blame, it’s obvious that the man responsible is sitting right there next to the Deputy First Minister.

“Humza Yousaf has failed and all he can do is spin that the NHS is in recovery, when really it’s at breaking point.

“Just how much worse does it have to get for patients and staff before he takes responsibility?

“Deputy First Minister, Scotland’s NHS deserves better than Humza Yousaf, when will this Health Secretary be sacked?”

Responding, John Swinney - who was standing in for Nicola Sturgeon - said the call from Mr Ross was a “laughable proposition” given ministerial resignations within the Conservative UK Government in recent months.

“I’ve been active in politics for many years, a member of Parliament for a quarter century, and you know when somebody’s run out of road when they start playing the man and not the issue,” he added.

He went on to say the pay offer made to NHS staff – which was rejected by nurses in favour of strike action – is the best in the UK, A&E performance is the best in the UK, and there are record numbers of staff.

“What’s not helping is the folly of Brexit, because Brexit has reduced the amount of staff available because of the loss of free movement,” he added.

Labour's Anas Sarwar told Mr Swinney “his head is frankly in the sand”.

He added: “This Health Secretary and this Government are clearly out of their depth.

“After 15 years in Government, 750,000 Scots on the NHS waiting list, the worst ever waits at A&E and now the Royal College of Nursing going on strike for the first time in their history.

“Does the Deputy First Minister accept that our NHS has not faced a crisis like this in its history, that it is the worst it has ever been, and it is all happening on the SNP’s watch.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said Mr Yousaf needed to take responsibility for the strike: “Nursing union officials are warning that staff are exhausted and staffing levels are at dangerous levels. They are striking because they know this situation cannot continue.  

“If Humza Yousaf thinks our NHS is performing well; he is living in fantasy land. Since his NHS recovery plan was launched, virtually every measure of performance has got worse.

“Week after week, the SNP's strategy is deflect, deflect, deflect. They spin the stats and compare a bad situation with an even worse situation to make the bad one look good. The Health Secretary’s comments are deafeningly cynical and, at their worst, deeply misleading." 

News of the strike comes as pressure mounts on the beleaguered Health Secretary.

Last week performance times in Scotland’s A&Es fell to a new record low, with almost two in five patients waiting too long for treatment.

Figures from Public Health Scotland show just 63.1% of people attending A&E last week were seen within the official four-hour target, down from 65% the previous week.

It is the lowest figure since comparable records began in February 2015.

The previous record low was 63.6% of patients seen on time in the week to September 11.