Pay cap forces health workers to quit

Tories wrecking our NHS: kick them out!

Marching to save the NHS, 4.3.17, photo Mary Finch

Marching to save the NHS, 4.3.17, photo Mary Finch   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Does the NHS have a future if the Tories are reelected on 8 June? This has become a big talking point in the general election campaign but many low-paid NHS workers are not hanging around to find out.

An NHS body has warned “lower-paid staff are leaving to stack shelves in supermarkets rather than carry on with the NHS.” Nurses have even been forced to use foodbanks, that supermarkets collect for, to survive.

NHS Providers, which represents almost all of England’s 240 NHS hospital, mental health and ambulance trusts, has warned the next government to abandon the 1% pay increase limit to NHS workers as health services are so understaffed that patient safety is at risk.

The Tories have held down NHS pay for seven years meaning, in reality, pay cuts of 12% for those who run our hospitals and health services. And if the Tories win they will continue to implement their ‘slash and trash’ STP plans which would mean a further cut of £22 billion in funding for the NHS in England.

The future of the NHS, the most cherished victory by the working class in this country, is a massive reason among many why we need to kick out the Tories.

Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has pledged that he would lift the NHS pay cap, which should be part of an overall plan for a renationalised, democratically run, fully funded NHS. This must involve fighting alongside workers and their health unions, like nurses’ union RCN which has taken potential steps toward strike action. And this plan for the NHS should be linked to Corbyn’s demand for a £10 an hour minimum wage – for NHS staff, supermarket workers, and the millions of other low-paid workers in Britain.

This general election is the most important in a generation. The NHS is at breaking point. Everybody who uses and works in the NHS needs to come together in defence of it, to kick out the Tories, to support Corbyn’s plan to smash the pay cap, and to fight for a socialist NHS.

Scott Jones