Rishi Sunak has admitted everyone would like to be paid more, amid headaches about how the Government plans on retaining more NHS staff.
Today’s NHS workforce plan, hailed by the Mr Sunak as “one of the most significant announcements in NHS history”, aims to boost staff numbers as well as reform the health service to deliver better care and services.
However a question from ITV at this lunchtime’s Downing Street press conference saw the PM admit that staff pay in the NHS will remain a thorny issue.
He was asked whether he accepts that “pay hits morale in the NHS”.
He responded with a laugh: “Look, of course, would everyone like to be paid more? Of course they would be!”
“But I think everyone understands the economic context that we’re in and our job in Government is to balance all those things – make sure we reward people fairly and well for the incredible work they do, particularly NHS workers, but also make sure we’re doing things that are good for them and the rest of the country in the long term and that means bringing down inflation.
“It won’t help anybody if we just take the easy course and ultimately make the situation worse and last longer.”
