Welsh nurses rely on food banks as pay cap hits hard
NURSES in Wales are having to rely on food banks due to the ongoing cap on pay. That’s the claim from two current nurses who say they feel that they and colleagues are bearing the brunt of austerity measures imposed on the NHS.
Christine Edwards Jones and Neil Evans, who work at Neath Port Talbot and Princess of Wales Hospitals respectively, say the issue is having a knock-on effect on recruitment.
Fifty-year-old Christine says she loves her hospital and community, but that staff are finding things increasingly difficult.
“Across all of the NHS, people are struggling,” she said.
“I feel like nurses are subsidising the NHS.”
She says that the pay cap means that staff pay has only increased by two per cent over the past two years.
“The pay cap means that, in real terms, I’ve only had a two per cent pay rise over the past seven years just because of the rise in the cost of living, and my pension contributions,” she added.
In March the Welsh Government confirmed that NHS employees would receive a below-inflation pay increase of 1 per cent for 2017-18.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) however labelled the pay award “disappointing”. Christine added: “The problem with that is that nursing isn’t an attractive prospect for making a living anymore, and we just aren’t recruiting the numbers that we need. The nurses that we have are moving into different areas.”
Neil, who has worked in the profession for 16 years, says that while people didn’t go into the job for money, a lack of pay is making things difficult.
“We did not come into these jobs for the money; we started working as nurses because we wanted to help people and because we loved the job,” the 46-year-old said. “But the pay cap is making things really difficult for nursing staff. I know of nurses who are having to go and use food banks because of the cap.
“I have seen people leave for agencies and better paid jobs – it happens a lot. We are really having trouble recruiting, and people are always leaving the hospital floor. It’s something that is happening across the board.”
Bosses at Christine and Neil’s employers, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) health board, have previously said that they are doing “everything possible” to take on more nurses and have staged a number of recruitment drives in Europe and beyond.
They have also cited the number of nurses retiring and the ever-increasing lure of agency work – which typically offers far higher wages – as reasons for the level of vacancies.
Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething, meanwhile, has backed calls to scrap a pay cap for NHS staff. Mr Gething has written to the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, to make funds available to the Welsh Government so NHS Wales staff get the pay rise they deserve.
He said: “I’ve written to the Secretary of State for Health urging him to make the case to the UK Treasury to remove the cap on pay and make funds available across the UK to allow hardworking NHS staff to receive a pay uplift of greater than one per cent.”
And a Department of Health spokesman said last week: “As the Secretary of State has made clear, the support and welfare of NHS staff is a top priority as they do a fantastic job – the government is committed to ensuring they can continue to deliver world-class patient care.”