What has happened to NHS staff pay since 2010?

The relationship between the NHS, the government which funds it, and its staff has recently soured still further with a once unthinkable nursing strike planned across the UK. While it reflects wider dissatisfaction, this was immediately triggered by this year’s pay settlement for Agenda for Change staff. Junior doctors, too, will be voting on strikes “after the government failed to meet the BMA’s demand for pay restoration”.

What is the truth about how much real pay has fallen, or been restored, for different NHS staff groups? To provide answers, we have updated our earlier chart showing staff pay in real terms since 2010. Close followers might notice an improved methodology has produced slightly different results (see the data notes).

https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/re...what-has-happened-to-nhs-staff-pay-since-2010

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Improving services - ME/CFS or any other - while pay rates collapse at a time when there is a global shortage of health care workers seems somewhat optimistic - see chart !

 

One thing that I wondered about is whether there are rules about it only being legal to strike in one's own interest. In other words strikes can only be justified on the grounds of one's pay or conditions. From my own experience I would imagine that most health professionals would want to strike chiefly because they see health care collapsing to an extent that they can have no job satisfaction. That might be hard to argue at a negotiating table. So we hear of professions striking for more pay. But the reality is surely that they are striking to save a service and that they are not allowed to express that as such.

I worked for 28 pence an hour as a junior doctor on call and I griped about it but would never have gone on strike partly because I could see that it was reasonable to pay a pittance to people eager to train to provide a good service and also with the prospect of better conditions and pay late run life. All of that has gone.

The only reason there is a shortage of health care workers is that the job doe snot pay enough to attract people to work in broken systems. The issue is entirely about paying enough to make the system function properly. I reckon that means a 15-18% rise across the board, plus, crucially, an increase in staffing levels. Without the increase in staffing levels 25% across the board is likely to be needed.

 

This is my understanding of all the strikes TBH, especially the NHS related ones