You should pay nurses more, patient tells PM
A PATIENT told Rishi Sunak during a hospital visit yesterday that he must raise nurses’ pay.
The Prime Minister asked 77-year-old Catherine Poole, who was recovering from surgery at Croydon University Hospital, whether staff had looked after her ‘really nicely’.
She replied: ‘They always do, it’s a pity you don’t pay them more.’
Mr Sunak, crouching beside her, insisted the Government was ‘trying’, but she said: ‘No, you’re not trying, you need to try harder.’
The PM said he would ‘take that away’, as she pressed the point again, saying: ‘It’s important because they do very hard work.’
Thousands of nurses across the country are being balloted on walk-outs as healthcare staff call for a pay rise amid soaring inflation.
The NHS could be in line for a further tightening of budgets, as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt eyes ways to fill a multibillion-pound fiscal black hole. Mr Sunak later dodged a question on the failure to give nurses a real-term increase in pay.
It came as he ditched a Tory leadership campaign pledge to hand out £10 fines to patients who miss GP and hospital appointments.
Mr Sunak had argued it was ‘not right’ that some patients were failing to turn up and ‘taking those slots away from people who need them’.
The British Medical Association said the plans would ‘make matters worse’ and threaten the principle of free NHS care at the point of need.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We have listened to GPs and health leaders and have acknowledged that now is not the right time to take this policy forward.’