Health staff set for salary boost Nine per cent rise over the next three years
Hardworking Lanarkshire nurses, midwives and paramedics are on course to receive a minimum pay rise of nine per cent over the next three years.
The Scottish Government announcement brings a salary boost for 11,385 staff in NHS Lanarkshire.
The mimumum nine per cent pay hike over three years for 148,000 NHS Scotland staff is the highest NHS pay uplift being offered in the whole of the UK.
This follows the First Minister’s announcement that NHS Agenda for Change employees would receive a three per cent pay increase in this month’s pay packet and backdated to the beginning of the year.
Those earning £80,000 and over will receive a flat rate increase of £1,600 a year. The changes will be agreed between NHS employers, unions and the Scottish Government by the end of the year.
Health service unions have recommended their members back the deal, which will affect about 148,000 NHS staff, including hospital technicians, porters, ancillary workers and pharmacists.
Commenting, SNP MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw Clare Adamson said: “This is an important Scottish Government investment in the 11,385 NHS staff who care for us day in day out in Lanarkshire.
“Currently, Advanced Nurse Practitioners in Scotland are getting paid £430 more a year than those in England, and if they secured a job with a band 7 salary last year, they’d see their salary grow by over £8,800 over the next three years.
“Not only is the SNP Government bringing NHS Scotland staffing to historically high levels – we are making sure that our healthcare professionals are getting the best pay deal in the whole of the UK and making our NHS a more attractive place to work.
“We will always stand up for what’s best for Lanarkshire’s health services and the ha r d - w o r k i n g staff who go to incredible efforts on our behalf.”
Central Scotland MSP Graham Simpson agreed the salary increase is well deserved.
He said: “NHS staff in Scotland are among the most dedicated and hardworking in the country and deserve to be rewarded. The SNP has made Scottish nurses earning over £26,000 pay higher taxes than their English counterparts so it was clear that a greater uplift was needed to cover this.
“However, hardly a week goes by when the SNP’s shocking management of the NHS isn’t exposed. Nurses and midwives are leaving in record numbers, those remaining are more likely to be off sick, and spending on expensive agency and bank nurses continues to spiral.
“The SNP is not doing enough to ensure there are replacements coming through. This is the result of sheer negligence by the nationalists, and patients and over-stretched staff are paying the price.
“This is yet another example of the SNP proving itself utterly unfit to govern.”
If accepted, the deal will mean that a porter who started on Band 2 last year will see their pay rise by around £4,000 (25 per cent) over the next three years.
Someone who secured a job as a Band 7 Advanced Nurse Practitioner last year will see their salary grow by over £8,800 over the next three years – that’s around 27 per cent.
A healthcare support worker who started on Band 4 last year will see their pay rise by around £4,600 (almost 23 per cent) and a Band 5 Ward Nurse currently three years into their career will see their salary grow by over £6,800 - that’s around 27 per cent.