Health service strike grows more likely over gap between pay review and 3% cap

NHS staff should receive a pay rise of at least 4%, independent experts have advised, setting healthcare workers on a collision course with ministers who have set a 3% maximum.

- Denis Campbell

The pay review body (PRB) will recommend that NHS personnel should an increase this year of somewhere between 4% and 5%, the Guardian understands, despite warnings from the government that following such advice would break the bank.

Health unions warned that even a rise of that order will do little to appease nurses, midwives and other staff or to head off the prospect of strike action across the NHS.

They have stressed that NHS workers are struggling with the soaring cost of energy, petrol, food and other basic commodities, which have left some having to use food banks.

Unions are seeking rises that at least match inflation, which is running at 9.1%, the highest for 40 years, though the Royal College of Nursing is seeking an increase five percentage points higher at 14%.

For every extra 1% NHS staff in England receive, it would cost NHS England about £700m a year, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has calculated.

Pat Cullen, the RCN's general secretary, said a pay offer of 4% would be "an insult", resulting in a real-terms pay cut and exacerbating the NHS's shortage of nurses.