Dear Minister for Mental Health,
I am writing to ask you desist in continually gaslighting NHS staff and spreading misinformation regarding the the profession you allegedly once were part of. I find it hugely damaging, not only to the already battered morale of staff, but also an added burden on our already fragile mental health. We should not be required to fact check ministers such as yourself, who are allegedly working in our interests. I would also suggest, if you are aiming to retain any of the staff we have left; lying about them might not be a successful tactic.
The first mistruth you like to bust out to justify your disgraceful treatment of the NHS is that nurses are on an average salary of £34k. This is a classic Tory Maths manipulation of numbers to fit your agenda. The ceiling of a Staff Nurses salary is £30k, I am a Clinical Sister and I’m not on £34k. By including the salaries for Managers, you’ve skewed the numbers, but what you keep alleging is the average salary of a nurse, is NOT the salary of an average Nurse.
The next is that ALL NHS staff received a payrise of over 12%. This is yet another manipulation of facts to make you look more generous. Of all NHS it was ONLY nurses included in that pay deal, and of those nurses ONLY newly qualified staff received anywhere near 12%.
For a nurse with 5 years experience, working in ITU, expected to take on further intensive training post qualification to work within that specialty – is on £14 an hour before tax, pension and student loan deductions. Yet you continue to tell us we should be grateful we have a payrise that equates to a real terms loss of 20%.
What do we have to be grateful for?
Should we be grateful that your ministers staffed billions of tax payers money up the wall on inadequate/non existent PPE?
Should we be grateful that billions has been spent and continues to be spent on Test and Trace, despite its inadequacies?
Should we be grateful your government underfunded the NHS for a decade prior to the pandemic leaving us vulnerable?
Should we be grateful for the 100,000 vacancies we have?
Should we be grateful for the Mental health Problems and PTSD?
Should we be grateful for being forced work with inadequate PPE and guidelines meaning many caught Covid and OVER 900 colleagues lost their lives?
No, we should be grateful because a Vaccination Manager you spoke to said “she gets it” and seeing as it’s apparently EITHER furlough gets paid OR a substantial and restorative payrise for NHS staff she will take one for the team. Also we’ve warped back to the 1950s where this isn’t a career for us, it’s just something to pass the time whilst our husband goes out to bring home the bacon.
This is not an either/or situation, it’s a political choice, and the choice is partially yours dear.
The argument that it’s all fine because the uptake of nursing students is up by 30% this year isn’t of no immediate help to us, it takes 3 years to train. Also, who are you expecting to train them?! You need experienced staff to support students in practical placements, without focus on retention this will be difficult.
I am so tired, I am so frustrated and I’m so sick of hearing yourself and other ministers lying about us. Please stop it. We aren’t infuriated by this 1% recommendation because we’re greedy, it’s because we are exhausted from working so chronically understaffed and we are petrified of how unsafe the NHS is becoming.
People say it’s a vocation, you don’t go into this for money but you and this government have stolen the joy from our profession and our ability to care for patients safely.
Considering you’re the minister for Mental Health, I would perhaps rethink your constant undermining of our profession and spreading misinformation to smear nurses as greedy. Especially after your repeated refusal to discuss mental health support for NHS staff during the pandemic.
Many thanks,
Kirsty Brewerton