Mr Barclay warns, “the NHS budget has already been set until 2024 to 2025”.
The Health Secretary has instructed the NHS pay review body to recommend a pay rise of around 2% for the 2023-2024 financial year.
A recent letter from the secretary of state for health and social care Steve Barclay, to the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB) suggests “it is particularly important that [the NHSPRB] have regard to the government’s inflation target when forming recommendations”.
While he has not been implicit about the figure, the government’s current inflationary target is set at 2%.
Mr Barclay also warns “the NHS budget has already been set until 2024 to 2025”.
Nursing staff across the UK prepare to strike for the second time in as many months over deteriorating pay and working conditions.
The average experience frontline nurse is now around £10,000 worse off in real terms than in 2008.
The very survival of the NHS at risk.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The NHSPRB board are clearly aware that without proper wages the exodus of healthcare staff will get worse, putting the very survival of the NHS at risk.
“But the 12 years of brutal wage cuts for NHS workers show that the NHSPRB’s independence has been severely compromised. It’s clear that it now exists just to do the government’s bidding.
“That’s why Steve Barclay’s warning to heed the two per cent inflation target is the clearest indication yet that NHS staff should expect a two per cent pay offer and for the fires engulfing the health service to become an inferno.
Ms Graham concludes, “The situation is clear: We are in a fight to save the NHS and workers are ready to take a stand.”
In recent months there have been questions about how independent the NHSPRB really is, given their recommendations rarely deviate from the government’s guidance.
