A 17% pay increase for nurses is “a big ask”, according to former NHS trust chairman Roy Lilley.
He told GB News: “It’s true, over the last 10 years nurses have seen the value of their income erode by 20%, because of inflation. So I mean, they’ve got a case but 17%. I mean, if you just do some back of the fag packet numbers, if you say the average nurse is earning say £30,000 a year that pushes it well over an extra £5,000. There are 250,000 nurses who are probably on the agenda for change contract, you do the maths and the Treasury’s then looking at both barrels of a billion pounds, plus National Insurance contributions, plus pension contributions.
“With the best will in the world, the way the economy is, it’s a big ask.
“I think they’ll split it – it’ll end up with 6% this year, 6% next year. They’ll have to do it like that if they want to talk but Steve Barclay doesn’t look to me like he wants to talk.”
In an interview with Tom Harwood on GB News, he said: “Normally, if you go on strike, if you work for a supermarket, for example, you go on strike, the idea is to deny the employer the income from sales, because the shop is closed due to a strike.
“That’s kind of straightforward. But if you look at the government situation, we’ve got NHS Trusts who are actually the employers, they hold the contracts of employment but the terms and conditions are negotiated by the Department of Health on a national basis, so the Trusts can do nothing to influence what is going to happen here.
“Now, if you get to a situation where the public is going to say, ‘you know what, the nurses don’t do too badly, I’ve got a couple of kids who are working at the moment, they haven’t had a pay rise, I haven’t had a pay rise, and you know what, my granny is waiting for a new hip and – let’s call it quits kids, let’s get to the end of his strike’.
” I think, is what the government will be gambling on.”
He added: “They’ve come out this morning with a very strong message. They said that we’ve given everybody the pay review body recommendations, which were 4.5-4.75%, they paid that, everybody’s getting help with their electricity and gas bills and what have you.
“The Government are going to try and tough this out but I guess we’ll see. There won’t be a strike. I don’t think it will be just before Christmas, but I think they’ll tough it out.”
