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Barclay also doubled down on offering media pressure as a justification for not rejecting NHS pay recommendations to offer more. He told BBC Breakfast that the government had accepted the recommendations “in full”, adding:
Indeed, where in the past the government has not always fully accepted the recommendations, under programs such as this ministers have been criticized for not doing so.
He accepted that ministers should not accept the recommendations of pay review bodies. On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he was told about various examples of different government approaches, including on health payments.
When we do not fully accept the recommendations, we are criticized for it. On this occasion, we have accepted them in full.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Barkley doubled down on his refusal to negotiate pay and told staff now struggling to “look forward” to next year’s pay process.
We are now three quarters of the way through this year. So what you would say is to go back retrospectively to April to remove what is an independent decision by the pay review body.
But we are already underway in terms of salary revision process for the next year, the transfer letters are out.
Obviously, that body will then look at the changes in inflation, the other issues that have been raised, all as part of the normal process of looking at next year’s wages, so we have to look forward.
Last week, when nurses went on strike, the former chairman of the NHS pay review body Gerry Cope said the pay recommendation was out of date. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
That happened in February, and the world was quite a different place in February, and so I think some of the evidence that they considered was probably out of date by the time it was published. Since the process is very slow, the solution is a bit late.
Cope also said this factor offers a possible solution to the government.
I think [ministers] he should ask the salary review body to review what he did last year and not reopen last year because I think it’s too late for that but I’m actually saying I want you to do a very quick turnaround for this year’s recommendations and I want you to consider anything you may have missed last time.
He said this could open the way to a higher offer in a way that “respects the integrity of the pay review body” – although he also accepted that the pay review could decide not to change its recommendation.
Barclay denies escalating the dispute, accusing unions of making a “conscious choice” to “harm” patients.
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether his language in the Daily Telegraph “reinforces the current atmosphere”, he said:
No, it reflects the very different action we’ve seen from these unions – GMB, Unite and Unison – compared to what we’ve seen from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) where we’ve agreed national exemptions to what would were covered by the RCN, while the three unions on strike today have refused to work with us nationally.
On Tuesday, MPs heard that ambulance unions and trusts in most parts of England and Wales had struck deals to provide “life and limb cover” during the strike. Rachel Harrison, the national secretary of the GMB, told Parliament’s Health and Social Care Select Committee:
Protection for life and limb will be provided. The last thing our members want to do is put patients at risk… The government has to play its part, they have to come to the table and talk to us. Our members want a solution to this.
Unions say Barkley has refused to engage substantively with their concerns, telling them he will not back down from the real-terms pay cut he is proposing.
And as NHS bodies call on the government and unions to work constructively to reach an agreement in the interests of patients, Barclay is doubling down on comments he made in the Telegraph (see: 7.33am).
He was asked: “This is not conciliatory language, it will not unite the two sides, it will only harden the country against you, will it?” The health secretary replied:
Well, it’s just a reflection on the fact that the unions have chosen this moment to strike.
Barclay said the recent increase in calls to 111 and 999 as a result of flu, Covid and Strep A meant the system was currently under severe pressure.
Ambulance delays were already at their worst levels before the strikes, with paramedics and doctors having to work around the clock just to get patients to hospitals.
Many face long waits to be transferred or told to go to hospital themselves, with the NHS blaming a lack of capacity on difficulties in discharging patients to the community or social care.
In Scotland, the government has already proposed 7.5% – a rate that still represents a pay cut in real terms, but unions have hinted that it will at least be enough to pass on to their members.
Asked if he would do the same, Barkley claimed he had “misconceptions” about the deal, telling Sky News its cost was “much more significant” than the nominal 7.5%.
One of the big misconceptions about the Scotland deal… it wasn’t just 7.5%. If you add all the other measures in terms of reduced hours, additional annual leave, changes to the way overtime is treated, protected study time, actually the cost of this is much more significant and, as I said, one of the unions is rejected that too.
Barclay cited media pressure when asked why he would not reverse the pay body’s recommendation, as ministers have done in the past. He told Sky News:
When we did, you were the first – I’m sure – to criticize us for not respecting independence. The difference here is that we have adopted these recommendations in full because we recognize that the system coming out of the pandemic has been under pressure.
Stephen Morris
In Wales, ambulance crews respond to red calls (immediately life-threatening) and ‘selected’ amber 1 calls (urgent but not immediately life-threatening) for conditions including chest pain, stroke, gynecological emergencies and serious road accidents. Other Amber 1 calls can be answered after a remote clinical assessment.
A quarter of ambulance staff in Wales are members of the GMB and the trust said it expected the strike to have a “significant impact” on its ability to respond to 999 calls.
The trust is also concerned that there is a risk that individual staff may choose not to respond to even the most serious calls, and that there may be sympathetic actions by non-union staff. The military are not appointed to drive ambulances in Wales.
Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan urged people to stock up on first aid kits and limit activities that could cause injury.
Ambulances will only be able to respond to the most urgent calls on strike days. Please do not put additional pressure on the services. It is important to call 999 if you are in immediate danger, but we all need to think very carefully about how we use ambulance services in these [strike] days.
She said everyone can help ease the strain by stocking up on prescription and over-the-counter medications for common ailments to reduce the risk of falling ill on strike days and by taking extra care during cold weather to avoid slips, trips and falls, and accidents on the road.
Updated at 08.46 GMT
Asked why he was refusing to talk to unions about pay, Barkley said he didn’t want to “divert money” from patient services. Pressed by repeated requests from union leaders to talk to try to resolve the dispute, he told Sky News:
We have a pay process, an independent process, and we have accepted its recommendations in full.
We’re investing in the NHS, we’re investing in social care, and I don’t want to divert money away from those essential patient-focused services to overturn what has been an independent process that looks at what’s affordable for the economy, what’s affordable for your viewers at a time of pressure on the cost of living, but also recognizing that the system is under very serious pressure and we need to make that extra investment in the NHS and in social care.
Despite Barclays’ claim that it adheres to an independent review process, it is important to note that some question the extent of their independence, noting that their members are appointed by ministers and told to take into account government priorities .
Specifically, Barclay has asked them to work within an already established budget. And while there are doubts that public sector pay would be inflationary, ministers insist it is and are asking authorities to take it into account.
What’s more, their recommendations are just that – and there is precedent for ministers to reject them whenever they want. In 2014, the then health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, refused to implement the recommended 1% nominal increase – itself a real-terms pay cut.
Updated at 09.07 GMT
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS organisations, told BBC Breakfast that he wanted to “encourage our colleagues in the unionized ambulance service to work as co-operatively as possible through today’s industrial action to try to minimize patient harm”.
These strikes come on top of the fact that we are already in a very difficult situation.
In most parts of the country, the ambulance service is well short of meeting its targets for responding to these types of Category 2 cases – so not absolutely urgent, life-threatening, but still very important emergencies and critical cases.
So this strike couldn’t come at a worse time because of the pressures the NHS is facing.
He called…
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