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NHS could hire 13,000 nurses for 1pc pay rise

Union demands of a 19.2pc increase would add £10billion a year to the health service wage bill

By Lizzie Roberts HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

Each additional 1 per cent of pay increases that unions are demanding could fund 13,000 new nurses. The Royal College of Nursing has announced a strike over pay on Dec 15 and 20. The union, which represents 300,000 nurses, wants a 19.2 per cent pay rise that Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, says would cost £10billion a year. Every 1 per cent rise in pay awarded to staff would cost £700million a year, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

EACH additional one per cent of pay increases that unions are demanding could fund 13,000 new nurses, official figures show.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced an unprecedented strike over pay on Dec 15 and 20. The union, which represents 300,000 nurses, wants a 19.2 per cent pay rise that Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, says would cost £10billion a year.

Every one per cent rise in pay awarded to staff on Agenda for Change NHS contracts would cost £700million a year, according to figures reported to the NHS Pay Review Body by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The report said: “This equates to around 13,000 full-time nurses or 400,000 procedures.”

It comes after analysis by the Nuffield Trust think tank found that more than 40,000 nurses left the NHS in England in the year to June.

In the same period there were 46,800 nursing vacancies, with 17,000 posts unfilled on any given day. Pat Cullen, the RCN general secretary, yesterday urged Mr Barclay to “stop the spin and start to speak” with nurses to avert a walkout, accusing him of having “chosen strikes over speaking to me”.

Mr Barclay said his “door remains open”, but it is understood he will not negotiate on pay. Downing Street insisted that ministers are engaging with unions, but added that “NHS nurses’ pay is an independent process”.

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, said he has “enormous respect” for nurses but that the pay rise requested by the union is “obviously unaffordable”.

Details will be set out soon on which services within the NHS will be exempt from strike action, as the NHS prepares for the likely cancellation of thousands of operations and appointments.

Services deemed “life-preserving” and emergency care will continue on strike days, Ms Cullen said, but she declined to give exact details.

Ms Cullen said there will be “very detailed and worked-through plans” set out soon about that, with a local strike committee in each organisation that has voted to take industrial action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She said the committees will include clinical experts who will “guide and direct all decisions that will be made”.

Ms Cullen suggested some cancer services would be exempt, but would not confirm if that included key scans and tests. Asked if nurses would be on cancer wards on strike days, she said: “Services such as oncology will be exempt from any strike action.”

Pressed on scans or checks such as colonoscopies, she said: “All of the detail is being worked through.”

During a previous RCN strike in Northern Ireland, entire services such as intensive care were exempt from strike action, while others ran a Sunday or Christmas Day service. Cancer charities warned last night that health leaders and the Government “must ensure cancer care is protected and prioritised” during any strikes.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’S chief executive, said: “We strongly urge all parties involved to work together to ensure that vital care for cancer patients is not seriously impacted during this period.”

The RCN said it was calling strikes after the Government turned down its offer of formal, detailed negotiations as an alternative to industrial action and said it will announce which particular NHS departments will be striking next week, when formal notifications are submitted.

Midwives and physiotherapists are voting on strikes as well. A ballot of junior doctors opens in the new year.

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Daily Telegraph