THE 17% pay demand by nurses “is so unreasonable that I don’t see how a negotiation is possible”, according to nurse and writer Sarah Jane Palmer.
She told GB News: “I’m actually against the strike. I think the nine billion it would cost to meet this pay rise demand of 17.6% is unreasonable and I do think a strike would be very unsafe for patients.
“The British Medical Journal has already shown that when there are less nurses on shift, the mortality rate rises. A study in the US also showed that there was a 19% rise in mortality when the nurses went on strike over there.
“I think that that shows they cannot meet the GMC code of conduct which is to preserve the safety of all patients and uphold the reputation of the profession.
“So even though I am a nurse, and I do sympathise, I still, I don’t think it’s the answer. And I don’t think it’s morally right.”
In an interview with Alastair Stewart on GB News, she said: “It does it concern me that they said Steve Barclay walked away from negotiating with them on the pay demands. But then I’m not sure what the government can do when they’ve already said that this is unreasonable.
“I think the amount that they’re asking for is just so unreasonable that I can’t see how negotiation is possible for the Government and the RCN.”
She added: “There’s a huge waste of money and mismanagement of funds in the NHS. In NHS England, they had a load of laptops that they threw away after a couple of years of having them, they bought them all in bulk in the pandemic, and then they had to dispose of them within two years saying they were old. I mean, that’s a waste of money.
“Then there’s middle management as well. I mean, there’s such a waste on middle management and there’s such mismanagement of the whole system, I think they need an overhaul of the whole structure of how the NHS is managed.
“I think there’s a lot of unnecessary managers in place when that money could be saved and then maybe it would be more reasonable to then ask for a pay rise for the nurses. But we can’t just keep giving more and more money to the NHS.”
She told GB News: “At the moment we are asking the taxpayers to spend nine billion on a pay rise for nurses when they haven’t done anything to actually save money in the NHS, and there are all of these areas that could easily be improved upon.
“I think that’s what I find so unreasonable about the whole situation, and then a strike if it wasn’t a cost of living crisis, and we weren’t in a deep recession, then maybe it’d be more reasonable if they they made a reasonable demand and it wasn’t being met and there was the money there.
“At the moment, the situation just doesn’t allow for that. It’s not possible to get that pay rise.”
