Nurses and other NHS staff to get 3.3% pay rise

NHS staff in England and Wales are to get a 3.3% pay rise in the next financial year, the government has announced.

The award covers around 1.5 million health staff, from nurses and midwives to physios and porters – the entire workforce apart from doctors, dentists and senior managers.

The rise is more than the Department of Health and Social Care had initially put forward to the independent pay review body, but it said it had accepted the recommendation of 3.3% to demonstrate its commitment to NHS staff. The Welsh government has done the same.

But a number of health unions said they were disappointed with the award.

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Prof Nicola Ranger, said it was below the current level of consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 3.4%, which measures how prices have risen in the past year.

"A pay award below the current level of inflation is an insult. Unless inflation falls, the government is forcing a very real pay cut on its NHS workers.

"This knife-edge game-playing is no way to treat people who prop up a system in crisis."

She said she would wait to see what the rest of the public sector and doctors received before deciding what to do.

Last year the RCN reacted angrily after resident doctors in England got 5.4% compared to nurses 3.6%, calling it grotesque.

"Nursing staff will not tolerate the disrespect of other years, when we were bottom of the pile," added Ranger.

Helga Pile, head of health at Unison, the biggest health union, said: "Hard-pressed NHS staff will be downright angry at another below-inflation pay award.

"Yet again, they're expected to keep delivering more while effectively being given less, as pay slides behind living costs."

The pay review body recommendation of a 3.3% rise also applies to Northern Ireland, but there has been no decision made yet on what will happen there.

The government in England said it did represent an above-inflation award, saying the forecast for the coming year was around 2%.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "This government hugely appreciates the incredible work of talented staff across our NHS."

The government said it would be in pay packets by the start of April.

But it gave no indication when the announcement about doctors pay would be made – it is thought the pay body that makes recommendations about pay for them has yet to deliver its report to ministers.

The government is currently in talks with the British Medical Association about the pay of resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors.

BMA members recently voted in favour of strike action, giving them another six-month mandate for walkouts. There have already been 14 strikes so far in the long-running dispute.