From a clap to slap for frontline carers

LET’S be clear – what the Government announced this week on NHS pay is a cut.

And despite promising to be “honest” with people, Chancellor Rishi Sunak didn’t even have the bottle to announce it in the Budget. He tried to sneak it out next day.

We’ve gone from a clap for carers to a slap in the face.

Our fantastic frontline NHS staff have been treating our loved ones this past year and are instrumental in delivering the vaccine.

Boris Johnson – who rightly hailed as “heroes” those who nursed him back to health when he had the virus – is now cutting their pay. What an insult.

The exhaustion on the front line is palpable. Sitting in the intensive care break room you can hear a pin drop, it’s just that silent.

Staff don’t want to talk. It can be a real struggle just getting through the day with the emotional toil of the work they carry out. There has been no break for staff in the past year and once there are fewer Covid hospital admissions there’ll be no break for them then either.

Waiting times for routine procedures are soaring because of Covid – and staff redeployed through this crisis will have to get back to their own departments.

Between last March and October there were 3.5 million sick days in the NHS for mental ill-health. The Government can’t ignore all that.

This is the reality of what staff experience. No amount of clapping is going to fix this. Claps don’t pay the bills, pay the rent or pay for charges at hospital car parks.

We’ve lost so many colleagues and friends in our NHS family. No one on our front line has got through this unscathed. A fair wage is all we’re asking for.