Johnson and Hancock are jeopardising Covid recovery by prioritising useless ‘Test and Trace’ over hardworking NHS staff
At breaking point: the UK’s National Health Service. The Tory government could make it better by paying NHS staff what they’re worth – but Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have spaffed billions on Dido Harding’s useless and lazy ‘Test and Trace’ white elephant instead.
It has been calculated that a one per cent pay rise for NHS staff will cost around £82 million per year, or 0.22 per cent of the £37 billion that has been spaffed on Test and Trace as run by Dido Harding.
The full 12.5 per cent pay rise for NHS staff would cost £1.025 billion – only 2.75 per cent of the spending on Test and Trace.
And Test and Trace has been useless. Employees notoriously spent their days doing nothing at all – and being paid £1,000 per day to do it, while NHS staff slaved in conditions that made them highly vulnerable to Covid-19 because the Tories couldn’t be bothered to secure PPE for them.
Many NHS staff are working overtime or using credit to afford essential bills, visiting food banks so they can eat, and struggling with both mental and physical health problems.
Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s attitude seems to be, “So what? I’ve offered you one per cent, which is more than you thought you were going to get!”
He and other Tories have made false claims that nurses have actually received far more, already, than they’re saying.
But this is nonsense. The fact that they cannot afford to survive is clear evidence that they are not paid fairly.
Stunningly, Death Health Secretary Matt Hancock has defended the one per cent pittance, saying it is
“what we think is affordable”
Could the UK have afforded the deaths of millions if those doctors, nurses and support staff had not been there to keep Covid victims alive? Of course not. Hancock was talking gibberish. He rarely does anything else.
This Site broke news of health professionals’ disgust at the lack of respect being shown to them on Thursday – before any of the mainstream news sites. At the time, strike action was being demanded by only one group – Nurses United UK.
Now strike calls are being taken up by the British Medical Association, Unite, the Royal Colleges of Nursing and Midwives and Unison.
And what if an NHS strike happens before Boris Johnson’s arbitrary deadline for reopening the UK economy – which is already looking shaky because health professionals are planning for another wave of Covid admissions in July?
All his plans will be dashed – because he decided to pay Dido Harding and her minions to sit on their fat backsides rather than supporting our hard-working NHS staff.
Source: NHS pay: More health unions join backlash against 1% pay rise – BBC News
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Typical fascist tories – they view NHS nurses as disposable commodities – useful when needed but why pay them a respectable salary?? The only valuable ones are the fascist tory greedy male allies who own corporate companies and give a tiny donation to the fascist tories thereby enabling them to be rewarded with fake contracts!
Nothing has changed – the fascist tories believe only they and their special ‘bros’ are valuable whereas we peasants only exist to serve our fascist tory masters!
Do not forget little fascist dictator dick johnson has wasted £2.6 million on a worthless media briefing room! Does little fascist dictator dick johnson believe he is the ‘leader’ and hence needs an extravagant and lavish room so that he can utter his lies to us peasants???? He didn’t spend the money – he has stolen our public money!
Now await the fourth wave of the pandemic which is due to occur in July – oh goody!! Fascist tories will use this as an excuse to extend their ’emergency measures’ and give more millions to their greedy corrupt corporate cronies!
Why hasn’t little fascist dictator dick johnson and his crooked mob not been charged with embezzlement and stealing public money??? Answer because the fake labour party is now an avid supporter of the fascist tories and we have a one party state!
I am constantly amazed at the lies and justifications the Tory scum comes up with why the NHS can’t have a decent raise maybe if they didn’t spend BILLIONS on the useless test and trace lot of course led by a moronic Tory you notice?
Then as the author says then they could afford a decent pay rise for staff that have put there lives on the line to help others but according to the Torys, that’s worth 1% now how much was MP’s pay rise again?
How much their scummy contracts were given to Tory mates regarding PPE that was substandard and useless of course they gave that back?
Of course, they didn’t it’s not the Tory way give money to mates get a nice job from them in return that’s the revolving door at the heart of the Tory way.
But care for the staff you claim to care so much about? No didn’t think so…