The NHS cannot afford a 19 per cent pay rise for nurses, writes Health and Social Care Secretary STEVE BARCLAY
This winter is a worrying time for our country. For months, households have been having to scrimp through a cost-of-living surge driven by rising energy prices.
Now, in the midst of a bitterly cold snap, they are also having to contend with an outbreak of disruptive strikes across vital public services.
Last week the Royal College of Nursing staged a one-day walkout. For the first time in the union’s history, striking nurses joined picket lines.
The RCN plans a second day of industrial action on Tuesday, with ambulance crews and call handlers set to follow the next day.
Last week the Royal College of Nursing staged a one-day walkout. For the first time in the union’s history, striking nurses joined picket lines. The RCN plans a second day of industrial action on Tuesday, with ambulance crews and call handlers set to follow the next day
Pictured: An ambulance drives past as nurses and supporters gather to demonstrate outside St Thomas’ Hospital in Westminster on December 15, 2022
Many people will be anxious about the impact on NHS services. As Health and Social Care Secretary, my foremost duty is the safety of patients and the public.
That is why I have done my utmost to listen to the concerns raised by unions and hold a dialogue with them throughout this dispute.
Contrary to the claims made in some quarters in recent days, I have done everything possible to meet and talk to union leaders – and am determined to continue to do so.
And when I sit down at the table with union representatives, I freely admit I want to push the conversation beyond pay demands to the crucial issues of patient safety and the working conditions for staff in our NHS.
These are matters that NHS managers and staff raise with me every day of the week.
I am in awe of the fantastic work our dedicated nurses do, and I want to have constructive conversations to fix these challenges and improve the experience of working in the NHS.
Despite their claims, some union leaders would rather grandstand on picket lines and in TV studios than sit down and have a constructive conversation. Strikes are in no one’s interests, least of all patients.
I must admit to being concerned that some unions representing ambulance crews are being less than co-operative in negotiations about staff cover on strike days. No one wants to see patients put at risk.
With patient safety as my top priority, I will make every effort to encourage a reasonable dialogue about maintaining emergency services during strikes.
Ministers have also been listening to concerns about pay. Last year, while pay was frozen across the public sector, the Government gave more than a million NHS staff a three per cent pay increase.
This year, even when money was tight, we accepted the advice of the independent Pay Review Body in full, giving nurses and most other NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 each.
This Government has put the NHS first, just as we said we would. But the country quite simply cannot afford the 19 per cent pay hike for nurses that the RCN is demanding. Frankly, neither can the NHS.
I do not want people to miss out on vital treatment and operations, but that is what will happen if we divert resources from frontline services into unaffordable pay increases.
This fact is so stark that even Labour, a party so often held hostage by its trade union paymasters, admits the RCN demands are completely unaffordable. It is time the unions admitted it too.
My plea to union leaders is this: Let’s keeping talking, especially about patient safety.
And if unions are determined to press ahead with strikes, they must not abandon the duty to put patient safety first.
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