{"id":44545,"date":"2025-08-05T02:05:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T02:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/44545\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T02:05:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T02:05:29","slug":"former-cambridge-nurse-says-nhs-pay-offer-is-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/44545\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Cambridge nurse says NHS pay offer is ‘unfair’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harriet Heywood & Dotty McLeod<\/p>\n

BBC News, Cambridgeshire<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Nurses taking part in a Royal College of Nursing picket<\/p>\n

A former NHS staff member says the pay increase offered to nurses should match other parts of the public sector, arguing it is a “team that saves lives, not just one profession or person”. <\/p>\n

Sarah Oakley, from Ely in Cambridgeshire – who was a nurse before leaving the NHS to set up a private practice – said she often felt not “quite as valued” as other workers. <\/p>\n

She said the proposed 3.6% rise for nurses “wasn’t fair” compared to 4% for teachers and 4.75% for prison officers.<\/p>\n

A Department of Health spokesperson said the basic pay of new, full-time nurses would be \u00a330,000 this year and the government was working with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on career progression and working conditions.<\/p>\n

Ms Oakley said she felt nurses’ pay could be linked to historic pay barriers, as the role has mainly been filled by women.<\/p>\n

“Compared to other pay offers, it’s very much saying ‘we don’t value you as much as we value teachers and doctors and armed forces’ – that is kind of what it feels like.”<\/p>\n

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has been holding a consultative vote on the offer, which is which is expected to be rejected<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If so, the union would push for summer negotiations to avoid a formal strike ballot.<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Tamara Keith<\/p>\n

Dr Tamara Keith, a GP in Bottisham, agreed that nurses deserved better pay<\/p>\n

Dr Tamara Keith, a GP in Bottisham, said she also felt nurses deserved better pay.<\/p>\n

“I think people forget that nurses are really on the front line 24 hours a day looking after our patients in hospitals and fully deserve a decent pay rise,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Salaries are just not keeping up with the cost of living, and funding within the NHS is not keeping up with the pace of change.” <\/p>\n

Roy Lilley, a health analyst and former NHS chief executive, said a larger pay rise would require a huge funding uplift, given there were about 300,000 nurses in the NHS. <\/p>\n

He warned that strike action by nurses could disrupt waiting lists and hospital operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harriet Heywood & Dotty McLeod BBC News, Cambridgeshire PA Media Nurses taking part in a Royal College of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-44545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}