MIKE HILL: A meaningful pay increase for our NHS staff is long overdue

It seems to me that the praise lavished on staff by the Government recently is already feeling hollow.

This move by London’s Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been roundly condemned and rightly so.

Frankly, it’s disgusting that NHS workers should be charged in the first place, let alone having to face such hikes in the middle of a pandemic.

The principle of free car parking for staff, patients and visitors is something I’ve advocated for a long time.

Nobody, in my opinion, should be charged for being sick, visiting the sick or caring for the sick.

Hospital car parking is free in Scotland and Wales, so why is it not free in England?

As the suspension of charges due to COVID 19 has demonstrated; the Government and the NHS can make it so, and indeed it is part of the Tory Party manifesto to introduce it for certain groups.

In the words of Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Health, Jonathon Ashworth, it’s “Clapping for our Carers” one day and “Clamping our Carers” the next.

UNISON, the GMB and other unions representing more than 1.3 million NHS workers, have called for talks to begin on a pay rise to take effect before the end of the year.

This call is being made to reflect the efforts of staff during the pandemic.

The unions say that the Government should build on the huge public support for staff during the COVID 19 crisis and deliver an early pay rise.

I agree wholeheartedly.

The average salary for a nurse has fallen by eigjt per cent in real terms since the Conservatives came into power in 2010 according to one union, and the praise lavished on staff by the Government recently is already feeling hollow.

Pay is predominantly low in the NHS and many workers struggle; some have even been forced to visit food banks to cope.

A meaningful pay rise is long overdue, and the Government should step up to the plate in support of it.