12/11/2022
In solidarity......
NURSES PAY AND CONDITIONS
Over the next few weeks there will be a lot of bad press fired at nurses and many who work within the NHS. For those who don’t work in healthcare, I wanted to help give some facts and context in support of my nursing friends/colleagues:
- In 2022/23, a newly qualified nurse will leave University with an average student debt of £50k.
- Their starting salary in the NHS will be £27,055.
- They will pay mandatory £120 for NMC registration to practice every year.
- They will pay between £200-500/yr in parking fees (depending on Trust) before even stepping through the front door.
- They will pay £15-£20/month for Union membership and professional indemnity.
- Their breaks are unpaid. They have 2x 30 minute breaks per long-day (13 hour shift) - if they can take them!
- 9% of their gross salary will be taken each month in student loan repayments. It is now estimated most nurses will never pay their student loans off in full under the new loans system, meaning this 9% deduction will continue for the majority of their professional lives until it is written off after 30 years.
- After adjustment for inflation, despite the most recent pay deal, nurse’s real wages have dropped by £1583 on average per year since 2011. Nursing pay bands are worth an average 11% less than they were a decade ago.
- There are currently thousands of vacancies across the country for nursing jobs, due to years of underinvestment and under recruitment, costing approximately £6 billion/yr in expensive agency staff.
- An independent study found a 10% pay rise to nursing staff would pay for itself through greater tax income from higher wages, and by reducing the amount of student loans needing to be written off.
- Another study found for every extra patient a nurse is asked to look after beyond a safe amount, the risk of harm increases by 7%. I have often seen nurses looking after patients on a ratio of 12:1. A safe amount would be considered 5:1. Do the maths.
Nurses are not greedy. They worked through a grueling pandemic to keep you and your loved ones safe. Over 850 healthcare workers are estimated to have died over the pandemic. Nurses have lost colleagues and family members to COVID-19.
Please support nurses in the weeks to come and don’t listen to Government propaganda. The recent pay deal amounted to a pay cut in real terms. It is not right that a nurse (or anyone!) should be afraid to put on the heating, or be forced to go to a food bank to provide food for their families.
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