The Guardian has revealed that a pay rise for around 1 million NHS staff could be in the offing.
It reports that the government is set to offer a 6.5% increase in salary over the next three years but, in return for the £3.3bn deal, health workers must give up a day’s holiday.
The report adds:
The Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care plan to propose that all non-medical NHS staff in England receive a 3% increase in their salary in 2018-19 – the current rate of inflation – and then rises of 1%-2% in the following two years. Nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants, ambulance staff and all other workers except doctors and dentists would benefit from the scrapping of the hated pay cap. Doctors and dentists have a separate pay review system.
Do you work for the NHS? What are your thoughts about the proposal? How have years of pay freezes affected you? Do you think this will make a difference? Why (not)? Are you worried about other problems facing the health service? An increasing number of staff are leaving the NHS – will an increase in pay ease recruitment and retention problems?
We’d also like to hear from people who aren’t healthcare professionals. Do you think this is a fair deal? Why (not)? Please leave your thoughts below in line with our community standards.
Here’s what a couple of medics have tweeted already:
What utter penny-pinching meanness from this government.
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) March 8, 2018
Forcing NHS staff to lose a day of annual leave for life - for a paltry 3% pay rise this year (barely matching inflation) then two years of real terms pay cuts.
When we’re short of 35,000 nurses.https://t.co/myELvk1LHK
This govt is quite simply taking the living piss https://t.co/Xt8Uqt3Mgf
— Dr Ben White (@drbenwhite) March 8, 2018
