We all know our NHS workers deserve more than the disgraceful 1% pay rise offered by the Government.

COVID-19 has highlighted the incredible work our healthcare workers do to care for the public and to keep them safe.

Since 2010, healthcare workers have lost one fifth of their wages in real terms. As a result many healthcare workers are now struggling to make ends meet. In recent years, we have seen healthcare workers turning to food banks, unable to afford their rent, or forced to take on extra shifts just to get by.

Alongside this, workload and stress levels of healthcare workers have been on the rise, making it harder for them to give their patients the care they deserve.

All this is causing too many healthcare workers to leave the jobs they love creating a vicious cycle of understaffing which means our frontline healthcare staff are more overstretched than ever. In nursing, there were over 44,000 vacancies in the English NHS, even before COVID-19. We know that this is likely to rise after the pandemic and this Government needs to invest in our healthcare workers to make sure that when a patient presses that buzzer, a Nurse is there to answer it.

As members of the public, we say this cannot continue. We value healthcare workers and thank them for their incredible contribution to fighting COVID-19. It is our NHS that is there to care for us when we are most in need and it is our brilliant healthcare workers who keep it running.

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve clapped to thank Healthcare workers for the incredible work they’ve been doing. Now let’s pay them properly too! Sign this petition and demand a 15% pay rise for all health and social care workers.