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Thanks for the claps, but…
Last night there was another round of applause to thank frontline NHS workers for their service. It looks like it’ll be a weekly event. Comments on social media and from colleagues affirm that many find it moving, appreciating the appreciation. My front line colleagues certainly deserve the warmth currently directed in their direction; they have worked hard, have studied hard, and many carers are earning barely above the minimum wage. The NHS pay scales here show that band 5 nurses, graduates with large loans to repay, start at £24,000. In London this is £29,000, three thousand less than London Underground Train drivers get during their training (source – Evening Standard) if the Evening Standard is to be believed
To get a salary similar the average tube driver, (I have nothing against tube drivers, btw) a nurse would have to be at Band 8b. An example is this job, for the senior nurse-in-charge for two of the busiest emergency departments in the country. And of course it’s not just nurses. The starting salary for the most senior doctors, consultants, is £80,000. A bit less than this man, clapped on Question Time who clearly thought that they are on much more.
Many of the people now cheerleading the clapping for NHS workers are the very same who have boasted about recent increases in funding which are still below the long term average, insufficient to deliver better care, according to the King’s Fund. They have presided over salary caps and below inflation rises which have eroded NHS pay by around 10% in the last ten years. They reduced the numbers of training places for nurses, then added tuition fees and reduced bursaries all of which contributed to a shortfall of over 40,000 nurses. But at least they are clapping the ones left. Thanks.
So now we have a national crisis which we all must contribute to. But when it’s over there must be a reckoning. Not only of the lies and the liars who told them, but of everyone who voted for them knowing what they were doing to the NHS. You were all told. You all knew. After this horror is over, we need a properly funded NHS staffed, by a properly appreciated and paid workforce. That might mean that many of us have to pay a little more. Being clapped is nice, lets hope that the appreciation is remembered next time the ballot box is opened.
Paul Snelling PhD, RN 