‘Enough is enough’ picket line outside UCLH

JUNIOR doctors hoping that a change of government might help things in their pay dispute have been warned not to get too excited.

The Extra repeatedly reported on industrial action at hospital doors last year and more National Health Service strike action has been lined up for the week before the general election.

But Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told the Extra that he would not be covering all claims for improved conditions if Labour take control after the July 4 general election.

Striking NHS staff have warned that they are struggling to meet the cost of living crisis in London but Mr Streeting says if they want more money then they will be able to take advantage of overtime offers.

Labour’s plan is to get staff working for longer to clear the waiting list backlogs, even though representatives have warned that this risked burn-out and what NHS staff really needed was a fair salary after years of essentially taking pay cuts due to inflation.

Wes Streeting

Mr Streeting, speaking to this newspaper at the Progressive Britain conference, said there would be negotiation needed but that the party had a 10-year plan.

Initially there would be two million extra appointments from evening and weekend clinics.

“I know it’s going to take time and I have had to be honest with the junior doctors, for example 35 per cent, not going to do that overnight, but to get back to fair pay is not going to be an event, it’s going to be a journey,” he said.

Any extra shifts would be voluntary, Mr Streeting added, and said that the overtime plan had been “proven to work in a number of big inner-city hospitals”.

He said: “The staff who are doing it are really proud of it and importantly they are getting paid for it, and paid fairly for it.”

As we reported on the strikes at hospitals last year, Janet Maiden, University College London Hospitals’ Unison trade union branch secretary, warned that staff were already feeling exhausted and underpaid.

“People are jaded,” she said. “We used to squabble over shifts. Now you say a shift is going and no one wants it.

“The facts are that nurses are willing to work. They want to work.

“They care about the patients.

“But they need more to support themselves financially.”