by Matt Trinder

Industrial reporter

LESS than 5 per cent of NHS staff believe that the government has handled the Covid-19 pandemic well, a GMB poll shows.

According to the survey of almost 3,500 health workers published today, only 4.9 per cent thought that ministers were doing a good job in protecting people and services from coronavirus.

Almost half — 47 per cent —- said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s team had actually made the situation worse through poor management.

Unions including the GMB have campaigned throughout the pandemic for NHS workers to receive proper personal protective equipment (PPE), coronavirus testing and pay justice after a decade of Conservative cuts that has slashed real-terms pay.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said: “NHS staff have been badly let down. It’s no wonder they don’t think the government is doing a good job.

“It’s a year into the crisis and we’ve still got ambulance workers attending patients with flimsy gowns and paper masks, instead of proper PPE, and nurses in hospitals given only the most basic of surgical masks.

“NHS staff are still suffering negative consequences from the last pay settlement, which GMB members rejected.

“Ministers admitted this week the NHS needs radical reform to repair 10 years of Tory privatisation. The first change they must make is to give staff the pay and protection they need to carry on saving lives.”

The government has pledged that NHS workers will be exempt from the latest public-sector freeze, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock giving the NHS Pay Review Body a deadline of “early May” to decide on a wage increase.

However, Mr Hancock warned in December that any recommendations needed to take account of the “extremely challenging fiscal and economic context.”