1% NHS pay cap must end, say health unions
- Details
- Published: Thursday, 22 June 2017 07:52
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 2664
The BDA has joined health associations and unions to urge a ‘change of direction’ on NHS pay restraint in this week’s Queen’s Speech. Groups representing all parts of the health workforce have written a joint letter to the Prime Minister to say the 1% cap is now putting safe patient care at risk. Civil Service unions have also lobbied Chancellor on this issue.
NHS GDPs in England have seen taxable income fall by 35% in a decade. NHS Confederation boss Niall Dickson has said the cap is now jeopardising staff retention, and cross party MPs have called for an end to the policy. Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Stephen Crabb has argued the cap was a factor behind the Conservative Party’s failure to secure a parliamentary majority.
Full copy of the letter
Dear Prime Minister,
By your own admission, austerity, and a lack of investment in the public sector was a significant factor in the general election result. Many have said that the pay freeze in the public sector was in part to blame for your failure to secure a parliamentary majority, alongside senior health leaders who agree that people who work in our NHS should be fairly rewarded for the work they do.
Organisations that represent patients and our NHS workforce are calling for the Queen’s Speech to mark a clear change in direction.
People who are working in the NHS are delivering care to the best of their ability but we are very worried that care is becoming unsafe. Our services are struggling to make do without the staff they need.
The Public Sector Pay Cap has forced professionals out of jobs they love. Those who stay are overstretched and under pressure to do ever more with less. The longstanding cap stands in the way of recruiting and retaining the best in health care. It is having a profound and detrimental effect on standards of care for people at a time when the NHS is short of staff across every discipline. This is alongside an uncertain future for EU nationals working in health and care.
Next month, our vital national service turns 69. In its seventieth year, you have the opportunity to show the country how much you value the lives of people who work in the NHS, and the people they serve.
We call on you to prioritise patient safety by guaranteeing safe staffing across all of our services and changing your policy on NHS pay. Your Government should remove the pay cap and address the real-terms loss of earnings so the NHS can retain and attract staff, resolve the workforce shortage and ensure safe patient care.
Yours sincerely
Mick Armstrong BDA and 14 others
First Division Association (civil service) union lobbies Chancellor
A new poll from the FDA union suggested Whitehall could be heading for a recruitment crisis, with one in three civil servants saying they want to leave their jobs "as soon as possible". The FDA Pay Survey of almost 2,000 public sector leaders showed 83% are unhappy with the overall pay arrangements in the civil service and more than two-thirds (68%) are aware of recruitment and/or retention difficulties in their organisation.
The majority of staff (60%) say their morale has decreased over the course of the last year, with only six per cent feeling more positive about their role. And over 85% of respondents said they did not believe that their organisation is sufficiently resourced to meet the challenges facing it in the year ahead.
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report