Imposing pay deal on nurses risks making NHS staffing crisis '10 times worse', warns ex-SNP minister

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A former SNP health secretary has warned the Scottish Government not to impose a pay deal on nurses or risk making an NHS staffing crisis "10 times worse".Alex Neil said it was vital that a deal on wages was instead reached via negotiations with unions.The former minister, who served under both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, also urged the government to reach out to recently retired doctors to ask if they would be willing to return to work part-time to ease pressure on the health service.Humza Yousaf, the Health Secretary, announced last month that nurses would be awarded a 7.5 per cent pay rise on average despite the deal being rejected by members of the GMB union, the Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Midwives.Neil told the Record the NHS was dealing with a "critical staffing situation".He said: "They need to get round the table with the nurses and negotiate a deal. "If we don't, and we impose a settlement on the nurses, it will make the crisis 10 times worse, as far more people will leave, and many will become agency nurses, making the NHS even more reliant on expensive agencies."So it makes financial sense to reach a deal with the nurses."Neil also warned that experienced health care workers were often retiring in their 50s as a result of pension reforms introduced by the UK Government.He added: "I wrote to George Osborne to complain about it when it was introduced as I knew the effect it would have.

It's been a disaster."It's the main reason the shortage of doctors is so dire."If the UK Government don't change this idiotic policy, the Scottish Government in my view should get the BMA round the table and negotiate some way to overcome the problem."It cannot go as we are already at crisis level.Neil