Healthcare workers have backed union calls for an inflation-proof pay rise for NHS staff, warning the health service is at “breaking point”.
Fourteen unions, representing 1.2 million health staff in England, have called on the Government to raise NHS pay and raised fears of a “growing exodus of exhausted staff”.
In a submission to the independent NHS pay review body, the unions urged action on pay to stem an “alarming” loss of medics. Inflation rose to 5.4 per cent last month, the highest for nearly 30 years, and as the cost of living crisis has deepened frontline workers have demanded a boost to pay.
Dr Yaso Browne, a Hampshire-based GP speaking on behalf of the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), told i: “People were encouraged to ‘protect the NHS’, but the people of the NHS need protecting from unfair freezes on their pay.
“For years NHS staff have been offered wage increases below or barely meeting the cost of living, in real terms. They have gone and are still going above and beyond to keep the NHS running. Their pay needs to reflect the value the Government proclaimed it held for the NHS throughout the pandemic, and still claims it holds.
“Paying people a fair wage is a much-needed reality if we have any chance of retaining highly trained staff.”
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