NHS staff are quitting to stack shelves in supermarkets instead of caring for patients because they are so demoralised by years of getting pay rises of only 1% or nothing, hospital bosses have warned.
The health service is now so understaffed that patient safety is being put at risk and people with mental health problems are experiencing delays and setbacks as a result, NHS leaders say.
The intervention in the general election campaign comes from NHS Providers, which represents almost all of England’s 240 NHS hospital, mental health and ambulance trusts. They told ministers bluntly on Monday that the government’s longstanding policy of holding down NHS staff pay is wrong and is damaging the service by deepening its already severe staff shortages.
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