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Invest in staff or see NHS waiting list crisis spiral, unions warn

RECORD hospital waiting lists will not fall without significant new investment in staff – including a proper pay rise, unions warned today.

As NHS England revealed that the queue for in-patient treatment reached a new high of 5.3 million in May, health unions said their members were exhausted, overstretched, underpaid and increasingly demoralised.

Hospitals across the UK were reported to be at breaking point even before minsters in England rescind remaining Covid restrictions on July 19.

Unions and opposition leaders ripped into the hypocrisy of ministers whose warm words for NHS staff were accompanied by determination to deny them a decent pay rise and the investment needed to fill an estimated 100,000 vacancies, including for 40,000 nurses.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said that the figures showed “the immense task ahead” for staff “who are suffering from unprecedented levels of exhaustion and stress.”

RCN acting general secretary Pat Cullen said: “Safe and effective patient care must be at the centre of the plan to recover from Covid-19, but it can’t come at the expense of nursing staff and their wellbeing.

“The Health Secretary (Sajid Javid) must take immediate action to address the nursing vacancies, starting with a significant pay rise.”

Unison head of health Sara Gorton said: “Despite the warm words from politicians recognising the exhaustion and burnout experienced across the NHS, health workers are not going to get the recuperation period desperately needed.

“A proper wage rise would help motivate the NHS workforce and prevent a staff exodus.”

Unite health officer Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe said: “Unless the insulting 1 per cent recommendation from the government is greatly increased, this could be the last straw for many dedicated staff.”

Although the number of people being admitted for surgery and routine treatment has been slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, May’s waiting list was once more the biggest since records began.

The number waiting more than a year for treatment was slightly down, from 385,490 in April to 336,733 in May, but practitioners warned that progress would be jeopardised by the abandonment of all Covid restrictions on July 19.

With Covid cases in all regions in England at their highest level since February, NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson warned today that there would be “consequences” if Covid restrictions were lifted.

Mr Hopson told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The NHS won’t be able to do everything given the demand pressures it has got and the fact that we have got reduced capacity in terms of both beds and staff numbers.”

He said there would be “very significant” pressure on the NHS and “we will have to dial back on elective recovery.”

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “More than five million people on the waiting list means record numbers waiting in pain or distress for treatment.

“We know that hospitals are already under extreme pressure this summer, and as Covid cases continue to rise this is only going to get worse.

“Sajid Javid has failed to put forward a plan to bring infections down [or] to clear the backlog.

“Instead he’s proposing a top-down reorganisation of our health service when it is under more pressure than ever before.”

In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said today that the lifting of lockdown restrictions north of the border on July 19 was “not set in stone.”

Ms Sturgeon warned: “We cannot simply throw all caution to the wind and no longer worry at all about rising levels of infection,” citing concerns about pressures on the NHS which have already led to some services being cut back.

Her remarks came as three hospitals – Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Dr Gray’s in Elgin and Raigmore in Inverness – reported that they were at “Code Black,” effectively cancelling all non-urgent surgery as Covid cases continued to rise.

Dr Lewis Morrison, chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said that the situation at Raigmore was “an example of what might well happen in other places in the NHS in Scotland if we don’t take some action to deal with what is a very high level of pressure on healthcare.”

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