NHS Pay ‘It’s time for talks’

Only by ensuring proper rewards and progressive pay for all staff will the NHS resolve problems with recruitment and retention.

Under the Conservatives, NHS staff were taken for granted, undermined and ignored. They were forced to work in conditions that were degrading and often dangerous for patients. Sadly, the Labour Government has not yet demonstrated ambition – and has yet to restore confidence among NHS staff.

My Liberal Democrat Parliamentary colleagues and I want the Government to be far more ambitious – for staff and patients.

We’d train, recruit and retain the doctors, nurses and other NHS staff we need by improving workforce planning and giving more support to the independent pay review body, making flexible working a right, expanding access to flexible, affordable childcare and ending the false economy of spending money on agency workers while encouraging the use of flexible staff banks.

We are campaigning for a new higher minimum wage for care workers and a new Royal College of Care Workers to improve recognition and career progression. We’re campaigning to fix the broken NHS dental contract, to ensure we have the dentists we need – as well as a fairer deal for dental nurses, technicians and other professionals.

I, of course, opposed the decision to increase employer national insurance which will affect GP practices, care providers, hospices, pharmacies and other parts of our health and care system. It will squeeze staff budgets and force surgeries and care homes to make layoffs and scrap pay increases. You can see the letter I sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer: Signed NICs and healthcare.

It’s also why I’ve regularly championed NHS investment in and out of Parliament, for example:

Further examples can be viewed on my Facebook and social media accounts.

I would appreciate your time in sharing your thoughts and experiences of Cornwall’s health services through my online survey which can be found here: Andrew George’s Online Health Survey. It will help me in our campaign to restore our struggling NHS.