Welsh and Scottish Health Ministers call on UK Government for more NHS pay
The UK Government has been urged to increase the amount of funding available for NHS pay ahead of the Autumn Statement 2022, which will be shared on 17 November 2022.
Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan have written to UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay to ask for additional funding to help avert strike action this winter in the NHS.
In the letter, it points out that the Royal College of Nursing has announced a sweeping legal mandate for industrial action across the UK. In Scotland, the Royal College of Nursing has joined several other unions representing NHS staff in gaining a legal mandate for industrial action with ballots expected to confirm a mandate in the rest of the UK.
Continues the letter: “The risk to the NHS of industrial action this winter is profound, and we all need to do all we can to avert industrial action in any form.
“The NHS across the UK continues to feel the effects of the pandemic as it recovers and remobilises, and any action is likely to have catastrophic effects in all parts of the UK.”
The call for increased NHS staff pay by the Welsh and Scottish Health Ministers follows recent strike action by NHS physiotherapists.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP) members have voted in favour of strike action in their first-ever ballot on pay.
CSP members in Scotland rejected the Scottish Government’s proposal of a flat-rate £2,205 pay rise (an average uplift of seven percent) for all NHS staff.
The society reacted “angrily” to this pay proposal, stating that the pay rise is not in line with inflation that is running at 10 percent and that employees in the top bands would receive less of a pay rise than the previous offer that was rejected of a five percent increase. CSP added that the lower pay increase for highly experienced and skilled staff could push people into retirement at a time when there is already a workforce “crisis”.
Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan continued in their letter: “We are experiencing a cost of living crisis and the anger of NHS staff is entirely understandable. Sky rocketing inflation combined with high interest rates, a direct result of the havoc caused by the UK government’s mini-budget, means that we are simply unable to come close to matching the expectations of NHS staff across the country.
“While the support provided by the UK government on areas such as support for energy bills is welcome, it has not gone nearly far enough.”
The letter closes: “We would therefore implore you to work with us to make the case to the Chancellor in advance of his Autumn Statement for increased funding for the NHS and the devolved governments as a whole, primarily to pay our hard working NHS staff a fair pay rise in the face of the cost of living crisis this winter, and avoid what could be catastrophic industrial action in the NHS.”