NHS staff demonstrate in protest over recent pay decisions

NHS staff across the country have gathered for demonstrations today (June 5th 2014) to voice their discontent over the government's pay policies for the healthcare sector.

Nurses, radiographers, doctors, physiotherapists, paramedics, hospital cleaners and other workers have gathered outside the Department of Health in Westminster and outside ACC Liverpool – where the 2014 NHS Confederation conference is taking place – in protest over recent salary decisions.

Meanwhile, a day of action organised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) also included local events in Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, the north-west, Norwich, Nottingham, Salisbury, the south-east, and Yorkshire and the Humber.

This comes after a recent RCN poll showed 95 per cent of its members want to oppose the government's decision to introduce a new pay scale that would effectively result in a cost of living increase this year.

According to the Trades Union Congress, NHS staff in England are currently giving the government the equivalent of 1.5 billion pounds each year as unpaid overtime.

RCN chief executive and general secretary Dr Peter Carter said staff "deserve to be valued and appreciated, and this paltry increase – which most of them won't even see – sends a very different message".