A pay rise for nurses is the correct economic and moral choice

Editorial: NHS staff are not voluntary workers at a charity, and they cannot continue to tolerate real-terms salary cuts

Members of the Royal College of Nursing on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital in London on Thursday (PA)

Having performed superbly during the pandemic, with so many dedicated staff making the ultimate sacrifice to protect the public, the NHS is once again on the verge of collapse.

The latest data suggests that the NHS 111 line is struggling to cope with the volume of calls about Strep A infections, the strongest surge in inquiries since the start of the Covid-19 crisis. The number of patients admitted with the most severe flu increased by 50 per cent last week, while the emergence of the norovirus has forced the closure of more than 450 beds to stop the spread.

As is well-documented, pharmacists are running low on stocks of antibiotics, Covid hasn’t exactly disappeared, and neither has the backlog of post-pandemic treatments – particularly cancer cases.

Now come the strikes, first by nurses but spreading to ambulance crews and midwives. Thousands of procedures have been cancelled. Only Scotland, where the government has settled the claims without much fuss, escapes the gathering “perfect storm” lashing Britain’s health system.

It is time for the government to take action. There is obviously little ministers can do about the behaviour and evolution of viruses and bacteria, but they have rather more agency in the very human world of industrial relations. Despite the distress experienced by so many as the NHS tries to cope with multiple crises, the nurses retain the support of much of the public in their resistance to yet another substantial real-terms pay cut.

It is not simply a moral case based on the principles of fairness. As the nurses pointed out at the time, the “clap for carers” campaign was all very well, but what they really needed was more resources. That remains the case, and it is deeply wrong that the authorities have traded on the nurses’ goodwill for so long, increasing workloads and squeezing salaries year after year. Nursing staff, and others in the NHS, earned the gratitude of the nation during the Covid crisis, but are still waiting for a more tangible award.

The good news for the nurses is that they not only have much of the public on their side, as well as the opposition parties and the Scottish government setting an example of leadership, but an increasing number of Tory MPs from across the party – Jake Berry and Dan Poulter, for example, are now urging the government to compromise.

The most potent weapon the Royal College of Nursing has at its disposal, however, is the common-sense economic argument. One reason why the NHS is finding it difficult to live up to its duties is that it is desperately short of staff – there are around 100,000 unfilled vacancies, plus the same in the social care sector.

With private sector salaries rising at around 7 per cent, more and more NHS and care staff will be forced to leave health care to find other work – because they can no longer afford to subsidise the NHS with their time and money. They are not voluntary workers at a charity, and they cannot continue to tolerate real-terms pay cuts. They should be able to live on their wages.

Without a better offer on pay and conditions, more skilled, experienced medical workers will leave, and fewer will want to undergo training for what is becoming notoriously poorly paid work.

The NHS will cope this winter, after a fashion, because it always does, and because its staff know how to make a little go a long way. Yet the painful waits for triage and clinical appointments will get worse before they get better, and the visible failings in care are multiplying. Sooner or later, the government will either have to give the nurses something like a 7 per cent rise; or else face a permacrisis in the NHS from now to the next election. The decision makes itself, and they should bow to the inevitable sooner rather than later.