LOCAL MP Mike Amesbury says he is ‘outraged’ at Government’s 1% pay recommendation for NHS staff.
The Frodsham-based MP said: “Words can’t do justice to the outrage many of us are feeling today after it emerged the Government is recommending a miserly 1% pay rise to the NHS heroes of this awful pandemic.
“After inflation, it will amount to a pay cut.
“It’s not very long ago Boris Johnson and Government Tory ministers were clapping on the doorsteps for our NHS workers.
“Due to COVID, staff have been working pretty much every hour God sends for a year now, saving lives - including that of our own Prime Minister – while also managing the tragic consequences when patients didn’t make it.
“Doctors and nurses go into work every day anticipating they themselves might die from the virus in trying to save others. That was particularly the case during the early stages of the pandemic due to shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) because the Government failed to prepare. Sadly, hundreds of frontline health workers did lose their lives.
“A pay award of just 1% would amount to only an extra £3.50 per week take-home pay for an experienced nurse. Nobody could think that was fair given what NHS staff have been doing and continue to do for us hour by hour.
“Contrast this penny-pinching approach with how the Government treats taxpayers’ money when it comes to handing out cash to private contractors. Remember the £37bn wasted on the failed Track and Trace system headed up by Tory Baroness Dido Harding?
“Or what about the £30m Government contract to supply millions of vials for NHS COVID tests that went to a company owned by Alex Bourne, former landlord of Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s local pub The Cock Inn? This was despite having no previous experience in the medical devices industry.
“If people feel as strongly as I do that our NHS staff should be properly rewarded with a decent pay rise instead of a slap in the face then let the Government know. Email Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock and bombard Tory ministers on Twitter.