A new poll has revealed that four in five (80%) of the NHS workforce would quit their jobs over concerns about their pay.
The poll also showed that of the 80% who are considering their positions, 79% of them said that an “inflation-busting” pay rise would make them stay. The results come as thousands of health sector workers look to join the TUC’s cost of living rally in the capital.
The vast majority of the 2,000 or so people who responded to the poll reported that the main reason for wanting to leave was that their wages didn’t cover the increasing costs of driving to work and hospital parking charges.
The Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Director for Employment Relations, Alice Sorby, said: “We have all warned the Government that the NHS staff recruitment and retention crisis cannot be solved without a game changing retention package and an inflation-busting pay rise.
“Without this the NHS will continue to lose staff at alarming rates. Staff have had enough, and they are now a breaking point, it’s within the Government gift to turn this worsening situation around by paying all NHS staff what they are worth.”
Around 22% of staff are purportedly actively looking for different jobs or already in the process of leaving. Almost two-thirds (64%) of the respondents also said they felt undervalued by either their employer or the Government.
Over 63% of the respondents said that the stress and pressures of the recruitment issues in the NHS are negatively impacting their health. 70% also said the staffing issues are detrimentally affecting the quality of care they’re able to give, with understaffing levels said to be at unprecedented levels.
The survey was run as part of the #WithNHSStaff campaign, which represents 13 NHS unions, including the RCM, UNISON, Unite, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the GMB.
