NHS HEROES FORCED TO WORK FOR FREE

Poll reveals staff do an average 11hrs extra a week unpaid... & that was before virus

NHS staff worked up to 11 extra unpaid hours a week even before coronavirus struck, a survey reveals.

And there are fears the situation worsened as the pandemic wore on. It led to claims that goodwill among exhausted doctors and nurses was being exploited.

Unison’s Sara Gorton said: “No one should be working for free, especially those on the Covid frontline. All staff

must be paid for every hour worked, or the struggle to keep workers will increase.”

British Medical Association council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul added: “The number of unpaid additional hours lays bare the workload pressures faced by staff and this will only have been worsened by the pandemic. The NHS has been chronically underfunded, understaffed and under-resourced for years, resulting in high levels of stress and burnout. The goodwill of NHS staff cannot continue to be exploited.”

Royal College of Physicians president Professor Andrew Goddard said: “It is no secret many staff are having to put in extra hours to provide the right care. Not only does this impact on patients, but the wellbeing of doctors also suffers.”

The NHS Staff Survey of 569,440 workers showed 55.9% did additional unpaid hours each week. And 3.5% of them put in more than 11 extra hours. With nearly 1.3 million staff, according to NHS Workforce Statistics, that equates to 45,143 people.

Lib Dem leadership hopeful Layla Moran said: “The Tories are running a national treasure on the goodwill of NHS staff. These hours of unpaid work must be worth millions of pounds a week and I imagine the coronavirus crisis has made this even worse.”

Around 200 NHS staff have so far died in the pandemic.

An NHS spokesman insisted over the past five years fewer workers “report doing unpaid overtime”. He added: “Staff should be compensated for agreed overtime worked in line with their contract.”

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We are incredibly grateful for the dedication of all NHS and social care staff during the pandemic.

“We expect trusts to pay staff for additional hours worked.”

The Tories are running a national treasure on goodwill of NHS staff

LAYLA MORAN ON THE UNPAID HOURS SCANDAL

GRAFT NHS nurse