PAGE 12 CANCER NURSE WARNS OF NHS COLLAPSE
CANCER nurse Karen Watkins will protest with colleagues outside Holyrood tomorrow in anger at the Government snub to their coronavirus efforts.
While other public sector workers will be rewarded with pay rises, the nurses on the frontline – and other hospital staff – have been excluded because they are midway through a three-year pay deal.
Karen, 46, of Bathgate, West Lothian, said: “The reason we are protesting is because our NHS needs protected.
“It is currently run on the goodwill of people who start before their time, finish after their time, stay back to complete tasks and miss their breaks to look after our patients. If we all worked to rule the NHS would collapse. Totally.
“More nurses than ever are using food banks. It is a sad state of affairs. Our pay is meant to be getting reviewed next year but why can’t we bring that forward and also look at the pay structure, so experienced nurses will stay in the job?
“Many of my colleagues are talking of quitting because they don’t feel valued and would get more money working elsewhere. We just want to be treated fairly.
“We all appreciated the support of the public with the Clap for Carers. It made us feel valued by them but now we need
BY VIVIENNE AITKEN Health Editor the Government to show they value us with pay equality.”
Mum-of-one Karen works in oncology and haematology at St John’s Hospital in Livingston.
The Unison member said she has some sympathy with the Scottish Government, because ministers can “only do what they can with the resources they get from Westminster”.
But in a direct appeal to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, she said: “Back up your healthcare workers. They have dealt with, and seen a lot, during this pandemic.”
The socially distanced NHS Workers Say No protest outside Holyrood at 11am will be replicated throughout the UK, including at Glasgow Green.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said nurses had received a 2.95 per cent pay rise this year – more than the 2.8 per cent uplift for NHS dentists and doctors – as part of the three-year NHS Agenda for Change pay deal, which delivered a minimum nine per cent pay increase for most staff and more than 27 per cent for some still moving up their pay scale.
They added: “We’re hugely grateful for the extraordinary hard work, dedication, skill and commitment of all those working in NHS Scotland during this emergency.”