Professor John Robertson OBA

Headlining on BBC Breakfast this morning and on their website, the above, and this divisive offer:

Almost 350,000 nursing staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be asked to vote from Monday on a 3.6% pay increase [lower than junior doctors [5.4%] or consultants [4%]]. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has already dismissed the award as “grotesque” and says the vote will be crucial in determining the next steps which could include a ballot for strike action.

The government says that as a result of the pay rise, nurses will earn more than £30,000 as a new starter for the first time ever. A bitter pay dispute saw nurses striking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from late 2022 and through the winter, with some members of other health unions staging walkouts over pay. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e3lp9dl7xo

The Scottish Government has already agreed a 4.25% deal for this year, for nurses and midwives. https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhs-staff-pay/

Scotland’s media will no doubt portray this as a similar offer, only 0.65% higher, to conceal the fact that it is 5.4% higher than 3.25% and that 4.25% of the average nurse pay of £40 497, in Scotland, is £1 721pa. The average salary for a nurse in Scotland is already £2 554 higher. https://uk.indeed.com/career/nurse/salaries/Scotland

What is NHS England risking here?

After more than 50 days of strikes and more than a million appointments cancelled NHS England’s waiting list swells to proportionally TWICE that in Scotland

Even the BBC cannot stomach Sir Keir’s claim to have met his measly target of only 2.4% more NHS appointments than in a period hit by 23 days of strikes – it looks more like a decrease in the light of those

What have NHS Scotland and SNP health secretaries avoided?

52 days of doctors strikes averted, more than 100 000 appointments and 5 000 lives saved by Humza Yousaf but his removal is what Labour desire most