UK PM Sunak meets health service leaders as NHS crisis drags on

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday announced to discuss pay rises for nurses ahead of a meeting with public sector trade union leaders in an effort to end the biggest wave of industrial disputes in decades.

Britain’s National Health Service, long treasured and funded by taxpayers, delivers free care to all, but is under strain following years of relative under investment and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strikes involving nurses and ambulance workers, staff shortages, and winter flu and corona virus have led some hospitals to declare critical incidents. Patients are facing hours-long waits for ambulances, and some are being treated in corridors.

Sunak, who is under increasing pressure including from members of his Conservative Party to improve wage offers to healthcare staff, said the government was willing to have conversations with union leaders about pay, despite ministers previously refusing to reopen talks about this year’s deal.

“We want to have a reasonable, honest, two-way conversation about pay,” Sunak told the BBC. “The door has always been open to talk about the things that nurses want to talk about, and the unions want to talk about more generally.”

Pat Cullen, the head of the Royal College of Nursing union, said she had a “chink of optimism” after noticing a “little shift” in the prime minister’s stance.

The government will hold a meeting on Monday with union officials representing public sector workers such as nurses and train drivers.