17th March 2023

Proposed pay deal explained
1. NHS workers in England would receive a one-off non-consolidated award of 2 per cent of salary, and an additional one-off, non-consolidated payment, branded an “NHS backlog bonus”, whose percentage varies by pay band. Additionally, lowest paid workers will get a consolidated increase of 10.4%, with all other NHS workers receiving a flat rate of 5%.

2. The government has agreed to commit to a national evidence-based policy framework on safe staffing, focusing on registered nurses, and it will produce an implementation plan for the forthcoming NHS long-term workforce plan, including an intention to reduce reliance on agency staff.

Unions hail strike a success
After months of rolling strikes involving thousands of NHS workers including nurses, ambulance staff and physiotherapists, the government ditched its claim that this year’s pay deal could not be reopened.

Hospitals told to share data with Palantir
NHS hospitals have been ordered to share patient’s confidential medical records with an American spy-tech company owned by a billionaire Trump donor who claimed the NHS ‘makes people sick’.

500 deaths in 2022 after long ambulance waits
More than 500 seriously ill patients died last year before they could get treatment in hospital after the ambulance they called for took up to 15 hours to reach them. Here’s an example.