NHS pay dispute: Health Secretary Steve Barclay hints at revised offer to unions

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has suggested striking wellness workers could person a revised wage connection - if they hold to "efficiencies" successful the NHS.

Writing successful the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Barclay said helium remains "ready to engage" with unions connected however the authorities tin "support the workforce".

The NHS has seen wide strikes successful caller weeks successful a wage dispute.

Shadow wellness curate Andrew Gwynne said a decennary of underfunding by Tory governments had stretched the NHS.

It comes a time aft wellness leaders held talks with the authorities astir tackling the challenges faced by the NHS - which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described arsenic "highly valuable".

Ambulance workers are acceptable to locomotion retired again this week, and nurses aboriginal successful the month. And from Monday, inferior doctors successful England volition beryllium balloted connected onslaught action.

Unions importune the existent wage colony needs to beryllium reopened and Pat Cullen, the wide Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the enactment could beryllium called disconnected if the authorities backed down and negotiated connected pay.

In his Telegraph nonfiction Mr Barclay - who was reappointed arsenic wellness caput by Mr Sunak successful October aft a abbreviated spell earlier successful the twelvemonth - admitted the caller strikes had disrupted the wellness service, causing much than 30,000 appointments to beryllium rescheduled.

"While those who kept moving did a formidable occupation - supported brilliantly by our equipped forces - we cognize the prime of attraction patients received suffered arsenic a result," helium said.

He besides said the authorities is readying to "introduce caller legislation" to guarantee minimum levels of unit successful exigency services, saying specified "pragmatic" moves would beryllium akin to actions taken successful countries specified arsenic France and Germany.

However, helium besides hinted astatine abstraction for dialog with the unions, saying helium was keen to clasp talks to spot if a colony could beryllium agreed connected immoderate revised wage offer.

He described a caller sojourn to 1 of the 42 caller NHS strategy power centres that usage unrecorded infirmary information and integer notifications to guarantee the emblematic clip a furniture remains bare is being chopped from 3 hours to 1 hour.

He said that erstwhile the NHS trusts tin find and wide present "productivity and ratio opportunities" that would marque it "affordable" for the authorities to money revised wage offers for staff.

Acknowledging challenges wrong the wellness service, Mr Barclay besides said helium would marque an announcement connected Monday to "improve the travel done our hospitals".

"This is the benignant of enactment we're determined to support doing, fixing people's problems and taking the state forward, alternatively than being stuck connected repetition with the unions," helium said.