MPs welcome Minister’s action on regional pay

A cross party delegation of 15 South West MPs welcomed the response of Health Minister Dr Daniel Poulter MP to their campaign to stop South West Health Trusts introducing lower regional pay and conditions, following a meeting in Westminster last night.

Andrew George MP, who led the delegation, said that good progress was made and it appears that the pressure is bearing fruit.

Mr George said: “We asked the Minister to write to the 19 health trust members of the Consortium to encourage them to now respect national negotiations. As a group of MPs we will also write to those trusts to urge them to stop their plans and to redirect their efforts to use the Consortium for other purposes, such as the procurement of commercial goods and services.

“We expect that they will come back into line early next year; partly as a result of the pressure they are under, but also because we believe that they now recognise that varying nationally negotiated pay and conditions would be counter-productive as well as more costly and disruptive for the trusts, and to the detriment of patient care”.