UK Health Secretary to Striking NHS Nurses: Take the Money and Patients Will Pay the Price

By The Independent

Patients will suffer if ministers bow to nurses’ demands for pay rises, the UK’s health secretary warned as tens of thousands of NHS staff prepare to walk out on Wednesday.

Steve Barclay wrote for The Independent that any boost to wages would “take billions of pounds away from where we need it most.”

He wrote: “Unaffordable pay hikes will mean cutting patient care and stoking the inflation that would make us all poorer.”

But the Royal College of Nursing [RCN] criticized him for “pitting nurses against patients,” branding the comments “a new low for the health secretary.”

An RCN spokesperson said: “Patient care is suffering because his government cut nurses’ wages for over a decade, causing record nursing vacancies in the NHS. Paying nurses fairly and patient care go hand in hand.”

The union urged the health secretary to “get back round the table and negotiate a fair pay rise for nurses.”

On Wednesday tens of thousands of nurses are likely to strike across 55 trusts. NHS data shows 4,567 operations and 25,009 outpatient appointments were cancelled during the nurse’s strikes on 15 and 20 December.

The NHS also faces further ambulance strikes next Monday, which sources indicate will go ahead, and new strikes are to be announced for February by union GMB.

It comes as it was confirmed rail workers will join civil servants and teachers walking out on what has been billed as a “national day of action” on 1 February.