NHS pay: Leaders call for government to negotiate amid concerns over “level of risk” in NHS

The government must “get round the table and have sensible conversations” about NHS staff pay to try to avert further strike action, a senior healthcare leader has urged.Speaking to The BMJ, Layla McCay, policy director at the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations in the health service, said that NHS leaders were “dreading” more industrial action in the new year, which could be “more coordinated” across professions and cause even more disruption.A number of professions in the healthcare sector have been balloted on industrial action, with nurses and ambulance workers already beginning strikes. The industrial dispute came after the government announced a 4.5% pay rise for most NHS staff, which the unions said was unacceptable in light of the rate of inflation and years of pay erosion.1After the second day of nursing strike action on 20 December, during which as many as 100 000 staff walked out, the Royal College of…
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