Furious mother of sick child confronts health secretary Steve Barclay over NHS staff being 'worked to the bone'

19 December 2022, 11:27 | Updated: 19 December 2022, 12:33

Mother rebukes Health Secretary over NHS staff working conditions

An angry mother on an ill child has been caught on camera challenging health secretary Steve Barclay about overworked NHS staff.

Sarah Pinnington-Auld said her three-year-old daughter Lucy, who has cystic fibrosis, was pushed off the "absolutely horrific" waiting list at King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill, south-east London because of "the obscene number of people who came through and the lack of resources".

In scenes captured on Sky News, she told Conservative Mr Barclay: "That's what is really upsetting actually because we have a daughter with a life-limiting, life-shortening condition.

Ms Pinnington-Auld, who has previously posted messages in support of the Labour Party on social media, said: "We have brilliant experts that are being worked to the bone and the level of care... they're not being able to provide it in the way they want to provide it."

She added that it was "unfair to blame it on the pandemic" because "actually we have problems in the NHS before we went into the pandemic".

Ms Pinnington-Auld went on: "We were short of doctors, we were short of beds going into the pandemic so I think it is really wrong to blame it on the pandemic."

It comes between two nurses strikes, last Thursday and on Tuesday, in the first industrial action held by the Royal College of Nursing for more than 100 years, after pay talks broke down. The NHS currently has 47,000 vacancies for nurses, and many have complained of burnout after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ambulance drivers are also set to walk out on Wednesday and a week later, also in a dispute over wages, with NHS bosses warning about widespread disruption.

This caller says the nurses are 'digging their own graves' by striking

Mr Barclay again stated his opposition to a 19% pay rise for nurses, saying it was not "reasonable", while defending the independent pay review process.

During his visit to the hospital he said: "It's not just pay, when I'm talking to nurses, as I am today, that they raise with me.

"They also talk about the estate and our new hospital building programme being really important to them, they talk about frustrations, often, with technology and how we need to invest more in that, they talk sometimes about some of the abuse that they receive and issues of safety and how we can work together to improve safety for staff.

"So there's range of issues that are raised by nurses with me. Pay is a factor and that's why we have an independent process to look at that, but there's a range of other things that also matter to staff and I'm keen to work with trade unions to address those concerns as well."

But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refused to boost nurses' pay, despite the strikes Tory pressure and unions warning of even more chaos in the weeks ahead.The Prime Minister insisted the government's four per cent pay offer is both "appropriate and fair".

The Royal College of Nursing, which coordinated the NHS's biggest ever strike yesterday, wants a 19 per cent rise.Yesterday tens of thousands of operations were cancelled due to the nurses walkout. Another round of strikes are planned for Tuesday.

Speaking on a visit to Belfast, Mr Sunak said: "The Health Secretary has always been clear, the door is always open, that's always been the case.

"But we want to be fair, reasonable and constructive. That's why we accepted the recommendations of an independent pay body about what fair pay would be."

His comments come after four senior Tories urged Mr Sunak to back down.

Emily Sheffield asks: 'Why won't the government get the NHS through next year by helping nurses?'

Some called for the NHS pay review body to rethink their recommended deal as a way out of the stalemate suggesting that the pay rise was made before the war in Ukraine and inflation crisis hit.

Conservative chairman of the Commons Health Committee Steve Brine has argued that the move would be an "elegant" and "sensible" way to avert further strikes.

Read more: Rishi Sunak refuses to give NHS nurses extra cash despite Tory pressure and threats of more strikes

Read more: Anger as locum doctors boast about earning £17k a month while nurses use foodbanks and strike over pay

A total of 44 trusts across in all UK nations apart from Scotland ran a 'Christmas Day service' on Thursday.

Cancer patients were among those denied care after the RCN called the first national strike in its 106-year history.