Former health secretary Matt Hancock pushes back against doctors’ pay raise calls

Former health secretary Matt Hancock said in an NHS wage debate today that taxpayers should spend more on speeding up NHS treatment and operations rather than increasing doctors’ salaries.

Mr. Hancock opposed requests from doctors and nurses in government to increase the 4.5% increase, which according to unions represented a real pay cut.

He admitted the NHS faces a “major challenge” as the wait for elective and emergency care reaches record highs months before the depths of winter, when the crisis is expected to worsen.

Hancock said taxpayers’ money should go “as far as possible” as the cost of living has reached its highest point in the past 40 years.

Cash “or could be paid for more treatments, more surgeries,” Hancock said.

It comes as members of the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and Unite in the UK begin voting on whether to strike over salaries.

Mr Hancock, who resigned from cabinet last June after being caught breaking his own social distancing rules and kissing a married assistant, defended Rishi Sunak’s plans to kill anyone at two consecutive NHS appointments with a £10 fine.

The former health minister, who supported Sunak in the conservative leadership race, said the move would be: It’s “extremely reasonable,” despite critics claiming it would hurt the poorest families.

The number of people on the waiting list for routine hospital care in the UK reached 6.7 million in June, meaning one in eight is now stuck with backlogs

Separate ambulance data show that the average wait time for heart attack and stroke victims exceeded 59 minutes (red bars) for the second time. The yellow line shows the number of category two searches, which is 379,460. reached out

The latest NHS England data for July show that more than 29,000 patients waited 12 hours for emergency care last month (yellow lines), four times longer than the NHS target, and a third in June, the previous record. Meanwhile, the percentage of patients seen within four hours – 95% of people need to be seen – dropped to 71% last month (red line), the lowest rate since registration began in 2010.

NHS salary review bodies said the basic salary for nurses should be increased by four percent and that of doctors and dentists by four and a half percent.

Mr. Hancock told Radio 4 Today that he agreed with the numbers.

Regarding wages, it is very important that we have wage control authorities for this independent process.

“The biggest challenge in terms of wages, of course, is that for every amount of money we have, we can either continue to be paid or have more care, more surgery.

“With the accumulated greatness, the need to make sure you have more action, more business, and money going as far as possible is absolutely crucial.

“Wage review bodies will follow, the government has been doing this for years.”

However, the Royal College of Nursing said experienced nurses would be worse off with amounts above the recommended £1,000.

It urged its 465,000 members to support the union vote, which begins September 15, and called for a 5% salary increase, above inflation, which is currently 11.8%.

Meanwhile, 160,000 doctors may leave as the head of the British Medical Association warns that the strike is “inevitable”.

And Unite is voting for healthcare members on the government’s “poor” wage proposal.

If all three strikes take place, 725,000 workers, more than half of the 1.4 million NHS workers, could go on strike.

Meanwhile, according to a survey of 3,100 doctors, around eight in 10 doctors in Scotland said they would like to go on strike for a salary offer in excess of the suggested 4.5%.

The controversy arises amid a growing NHS crisis with record queues for routine operations, emergency services falling to the worst level and waiting times at nearly 999, the longest ever.

“The NHS is facing a tremendous challenge right now,” said Mr Hancock, due to the knock-on effects of the pandemic.

Mr Sunak said he has given health care “all the money it needs” to respond to the Covid crisis and make sure it is “fully protected from the epidemic and never overcome”.

But Mr. Hancock admitted: “A series of operations to be performed” [didn’t]and testing and diagnostics are not available and it is very important to ensure that you get rid of this backlog.

‘And Rishi talked about it, he comes from an NHS family, his mother was a pharmacist, his father was an NHS GP.

“He also talked about some of the ways to fix problems on the front line.

“For example, dealing with the number of missed appointments and the fact that so many appointments – more than 10 percent – are not taken.”

The aspiring Prime Minister has sought a £10 fine last month for those who missed two or more GP and hospital appointments without adequate notice.

He said it’s “not good” when people don’t come to consultations, scans and checkups, and don’t take “those seats” at more than 14 million times a year, away from the people who need them.

But doctors warned the plans would affect the poorest and most vulnerable, deterring them from changing reservations and increasing health inequalities.

However, Mr. Hancock said: “I think… [it] a very reasonable way to deal with an important problem that is the pressure on our practitioners”.