Nursing unions demand swift action on NHS from Keir Starmer
Unions representing nursing and midwifery staff have celebrated the landslide victory of the Labour Party in last night’s general election – but pledged to firmly hold the new government to account.
Sir Keir Starmer has become the new prime minister after his party won a total of 412 seats – an increase of 214 – in yesterday’s general election.
It consigned previous incumbent Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party to opposition with a total of 121 seats, a decrease of 251.
“The election may be over, but the hard work has just begun”
Royal College of Nursing
Throughout the period running up to the election, the majority of the UK’s major trade unions backed Sir Keir’s campaign, including those representing nurses and midwives.
These unions have now celebrated his win, but made it clear they will not let the new government off the hook until promises are kept and will be expecting swift action in exchange for their support.
Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison – which represents nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and other healthcare workers – described the past 14 years as a “living nightmare”.
“After an endless merry-go-round of chaos, infighting, untruths and cronyism in government, public services are in a sorry state,” she said. “Fixing them and rebuilding trust in politics will be no easy task and will take time.”
Ms McAnea said she was optimistic that Labour, in power, could “press the reset button”, and set out out her hopes for the coming five years.
These included investing in essential services to get communities “back on their feet”, ensuring patients received NHS treatment when ill and creating a social care system to support “everyone needing help”.
Ms McAnea stated that “rebuilding” public services and “reviving the UK” should be the government’s priorities.
“Fundamental to delivering safety improvements in maternity care is getting the midwifery workforce right”
Gill Walton
The Royal College of Midwives, meanwhile, has written to new health secretary, Wes Streeting, asking him to “deliver on the calls” made by unions during the election campaign and for an early meeting.
The RCM outlined their key demands for the health secretary, notably more midwives, better staff retention, safety improvements in maternity care and timely pay rises.
RCM general secretary and chief executive Gill Walton said: “We have all the reviews and evidence we need to start working on bringing about positive change in our maternity services.
“We know [Mr Streeting] is committed to using these to make safety and service improvements happen at a faster pace than the previous government,” she said.
“Fundamental to delivering safety improvements in maternity care is getting the midwifery workforce right and for far too long now it’s been understaffed, and women are not getting the level of quality maternity care they need and deserve.
“We are seeing a rise in more complex pregnancies with women needing more support. Often that means more midwives and specialist midwives are needed to care for them,” she said.
As well as recruiting and training more midwives, Ms Walton also called for more timely action on annual NHS pay rises.
“I hope that in future years, midwives and maternity support workers can get each year’s pay rise in their hands from the start of each financial year and not have the whole process drag months beyond the time when it is payable.
“This has happened repeatedly for far too many years, further eroding the morale of our hardworking midwives and midwifery support workers,” she noted.
Further, the union said it would hold Labour to account in its manifesto pledge to set explicit targets to “close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap”.
Similarly, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)’s acting general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger praised Sir Keir for putting the nursing profession at the “top of his list” and demanded swift action from the new prime minister.
“The must deliver a reset in relations with health and care services, the people who work in them and their professional representatives. We will act as partners in finding constructive solutions.
“With backing and investment from his government, nursing staff can get the health service ‘back on its feet’. At present, patients are suffering in corridors and dying alone due to dangerously high nursing shortages.
“Today is the NHS’ birthday – celebrations might be muted but we can reflect on the year ahead. New impetus and investment are needed to rescue the [NHS] Long Term Workforce Plan, including with government-funded nursing degrees.”
Unions representing nurses and midwives have spent much of the last two years campaigning for pay rises, improvements to working conditions and for better investment in public services more broadly.
During her union’s annual congress in May, Ranger said that NHS worker pay should be a top priority for whichever party wins the election.
With the current agenda for change pay deal now more than three months late, the new government will be expected to not only expedite this process and ensure it is sufficient – but deliver a 2024-25 deal on time, with the preparations for that due to start as early as November.
Professor Ranger, in her statement today, said it would be “unreasonable” to make nurses wait any longer for the pay deal, adding: “One of the first acts from the new government must be to announce an NHS pay award – fair pay is an important tool in retaining more nursing staff in services at a time of widespread vacancies.
“In the interests of patient safety, the new government should introduce safety-critical limits on the maximum number of patients a nurse is responsible for and implement forced reporting of care in corridors.”
The RCN’s official account added on X (formerly Twitter): “The election may be over, but the hard work has just begun.
“For the incoming government, investment in nursing must be a top priority,” it said on a social media post.
Public services union Unite, which also represents nursing staff, said on social media that now was the time for the government to invest and fix the public sector.
It posted: “Congratulations to UK Labour. Britain is broken, now it’s time to deliver for workers and communities.”
This article was updated at 2.24pm with the official statement from Professor Nicola Ranger.
