A letter to the Star and Telegraph
Sheffield Green Party offer the nurses our full solidarity in winning the pay award they deserve. It is appalling that they have been forced to vote for strike action.
The Tory Government failed to properly fund the NHS for a decade, flip-flopped on funding training for new nurses, and have no long-term plan for health and social care. Short staffing and poor working conditions are piling pressure on the nurses who are left, leading many to leave the service. The NHS is filling the gaps with agency workers who cost up to £2500 a day. Patients who should be discharged are taking up hospital beds because there isn’t funding for enough carers to look after them at home. This is a crisis made in Westminster.
The British people, and particularly the wealthiest amongst us, can fund the 5% real-term pay rise that nurses are asking for. We can fund a minimum wage of £15 per hour to give social care staff a decent standard of living. Nurses and social care staff give so much and make a huge difference to the lives of so many; we have a responsibility to provide the pay and conditions they deserve.
Toby Mallinson
Hillsborough Green Party
