The dispute, which started in 2019, began with nurses being accused of fraud by management after periods of compensatory rest after on-call working.

Throughout the trust, when staff needed to work while on call and are scheduled to work the following day, they must take a number of hours rest, the nurses got paid for these.

However, in 2019, and only in this department, one manager changed this so that anyone who had to rest due to being on call and was scheduled to work the next morning, would owe those hours back. This means that nurses were forever owing hours back which exhausted them.

The practice of paying back hours has left staff ‘exhausted, demoralised undervalued and unsafe', Unite said.             

The union gave notice of three days of strike action on 9 April, and within 48 hours management at the hospital agreed to permanently drop the compensatory hours payback, and the strike was suspended. After an extended period of negotiations to agree a new policy, the dispute is now fully resolved.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘It was outrageous that these dedicated, specialist nurses were being forced to pay back time after being on long shifts. I'm delighted the hospital has seen sense and removed this absurd policy.'

A spokesperson for Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We have been in talks with cardiac theatre nursing staff about their working hours.

'Earlier this year, we agreed to make changes which will align conditions for all nursing and Allied Health Professionals staff across the trust.'