Almost half Britain’s nurses are considering quitting the NHS, a Sunday Mirror poll reveals today.
More and more worn-out Covid heroes are close to hanging up their scrubs like colleague Jenny McGee – one of the intensive care staff who helped save Boris Johnson’s life.
This week, Jenny quit over the PM’s disastrous failings, saying: “We’re not getting the respect and pay we deserve. I’m sick of it.”
She is not alone.
Our poll run with the Nursing Standard journal raises fears of a mass exodus among our 300,000 nurses following the “insulting” 1% pay rise.
We found:
- Around 43% of the 1,600 nurses questioned said they were thinking of leaving the job they love.
- More than 90% felt the Government doesn’t value them.
- A huge 85% feel unfairly paid – blasting long hours, staffing shortages and lack of safe working conditions, as well as attacks by patients.
- Two-thirds also believe the Tories have mishandled the pandemic.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Boris Johnson’s nurse spoke for NHS staff everywhere when she said they hadn’t received the respect they deserve.
“After a horrific year, staff are running on empty. With Labour, nurses would get a fair pay rise, a training bursary
and investment.”
The Royal College of Nursing, which is calling for a 12.5% rise, said our survey should “send shockwaves” through the Government.
Acting general secretary Pat Cullen warned: “The risk of an exodus is very real.
"This should force them to properly respect those who have given so much – starting with a pay rise that recognises their skill and professionalism.”
The GMB union warned of a “staffing catastrophe”, with experienced nurses’ pay down 15.3% in real terms over the past 10 years.
It wants a 15% rise or £2 extra an hour, whichever is greater.
General secretary Rehana Azam said: “After a decade of cuts, NHS workers feel overworked, undervalued and morale is rock-bottom. Unless ministers take urgent action, a staffing crisis will become a catastrophe.”
Rehana’s words were reflected in our poll. When asked what would stop them leaving, 70% of nurses said fair pay, while 50% wanted a better work-life balance.
Nearly half said morale was poor. Many told us they were considering early retirement, while others said they were looking at moving to Australia, New Zealand and Canada for better pay and conditions.
Others are thinking of a total career change – with one saying she would rather be an Asda delivery driver.
The NHS was already facing a shortage of 50,000 nurses before the pandemic.
Now the floodgates could be opened by the fact a nurse who helped save the PM’s life – and was one of two invited to No10 to receive his thanks – has had enough.
New Zealander Jenny’s despair is echoed by the case studies highlighted on these pages.
Nurses speak of falling ill with Covid in the line of duty only to be offered a rise that adds “insult to injury”. Of a government that “doesn’t care”. Of nurses so poor they have to turn to debt management services and foodbanks.
Many others called the pay offer a “kick in the teeth”.
One said: “We put our lives on the line with out-of-date PPE and this is how we are repaid. We are viewed as uneducated people who wipe bottoms, yet I have a masters.”
Another said: “It is a joke that after three years at university and over 15 years’ experience as a qualified nurse specialising in critical care, I get £15.50 an hour.”
One nurse told us they had been “led like lambs to the slaughter” during the first wave, adding: “The way people died with inadequate PPE was awful. Nurses will need proper mental health support for years. A 1% rise is disgusting.”
A nurse we questioned also revealed she caught the virus from a patient in April 2020 amid the PPE crisis, then gave it to her mum who spent four months in hospital and is still on oxygen.
And one suffering long Covid, said: “Words and claps don’t pay bills. We have been badly let down.”
A thread that ran throughout the interviews was anger that billions were wasted on “inadequate PPE” and the failed Test and Trace system, leaving nothing to pay frontline workers fairly.
And there was frustration that nurses in England were denied the 4% rise and a £500 bonus offered to colleagues in Scotland.
Flavia Munn, editor of Nursing Standard, said: “Boris Johnson couldn’t even acknowledge Jenny McGee when questioned this week about her resignation. It was a different story when he was seeking a photo opportunity after his recovery.
“If the Government continues to ignore exhausted and demoralised nurses, even more will leave.”
The Department of Health said: “We recognise the enormous pressure this pandemic has put on all of our staff.
“To support their wellbeing, we invested £30million in mental health and occupational health support last year, and a further £37million this year for mental health hubs, a helpline and a 24/7 text support service.
“There are record numbers of nurses in our NHS and applicants to study have risen 34% this year alone.
“More than one million NHS staff have benefited from multi-year pay deals which have increased the starting salary for newly qualified nurses by over 12%.”
'We are broken'
Holly Turner, 40, told how she and her and her partner, also a nurse, caught Covid in January – probably at work.
The mum-of-two said: “It was absolutely horrific, so a 1% pay rise adds insult to injury.”
Holly, a nurse for 12 years, says referrals to her service in Essex looking after vulnerable children rose tenfold during the pandemic and she is struggling to cope.
“We are totally overstretched,” she said. “When the Government places no value in us whatsoever, it’s no wonder so many are leaving the NHS.
“I have seen lots of my colleagues leave. We are broken.
“If I’d known when I started training what the job would be like now, I would have chosen a different career. I love my job, but I want to be able to offer my patients what they need – and the way the NHS is now, I can’t.”
'Johnson is to blame'
Emergency nurse Mel Kerr, 26, said Jenny McGee was “yet another wonderful nurse we have lost”.
Mel, who works in Lincolnshire, said she fears staff shortages could “break the system” in the event of a third Covid wave. “I don’t see how hospitals could cope. It’s terrifying,” she said.
“Nurses are walking away from jobs they once loved. Who is to blame for that? Boris Johnson and his government. I have friends who have left the profession entirely. One has gone to Australia to work. All I can say to Jenny is, ‘Good on you’. I’m not surprised she’s leaving.”
Meanwhile nursing campaigner Anthony Johnson, 28, blasted the PM’s treatment of Jenny and the other nurses who saved him as “disgusting”.
Anthony quit his health visitor job in Leeds last year after caseloads became unmanageable. Now running organisation Nurses United, he said: “I wanted to help change people’s lives, but I couldn’t do the job I was trained to do.”
' So sad I had to leave'
District nurse Maggy Heaton quit this month after 25 years in the NHS because she was fed up of being undervalued.
Maggie, 63, said chronic under-staffing left her unable to provide the quality of care she wanted to give patients on her rounds in Lancashire.
She said: “I’d be driving around feeling so much pressure, thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I’ll never get to them all’.” She was also sick of the growing amount of paperwork – usually done in unpaid overtime.
Maggie, who earned £30,615 a year, said: “I’ve been nursing 25 years and I’ve stayed at band five, where most nurses get stuck. I feel undervalued.
“I’m sad that politicians have put me in a position where I’ve been forced to give up a job I love.”
Maggy, who still works as an RCN steward, added: “I became a nurse because I love caring for people. But we need to be paid the salary we deserve – or nurses will continue to leave.”
'Help me build a better future for NHS staff'
- Comment, by Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary
Jenny McGee spoke for NHS staff across the land when she slammed Tory ministers for their lack of respect.
After a year when intensive care beds filled up with patients battling this horrific disease and NHS staff put themselves in the face of danger to care for us, the 1% pay offer – a possible pay cut in real terms – is the ultimate kick in the teeth.
Giving NHS staff a fair pay rise isn’t some luxury, it’s an absolute necessity, given the challenges ahead – five million patients wait for treatment.
I’m pledging to all nurses, midwives and health visitors that I’ll be your champion as Health Secretary.
I’m inviting all NHS staff reading this to get in touch so together, we can build a better future.
