Clear and constructive leadership lacking in NHS crisis - The Yorkshire Post says

With every passing day, it is clear that the Government doesn’t have a plan to take control of a situation that has continued to escalate this winter.

As Rishi Sunak shared exchanges with the leader of the Opposition, members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) were out on strike again.

Nurses are saying that they are still facing the sort of pressure that they did during the pandemic. Everyone acknowledges the hardship that nurses faced at the height of the Covid crisis. The fact that they are still under that sort of pressure shows that action is needed to fix what is an ailing healthcare system. On top of the pressure they are now feeling the bite from inflation. All of this added together, the Government’s stance on not negotiating with the nurses over pay becomes more and more questionable.

Ambulance workers are set to join nurses in taking strike action in February in what will be the biggest walkout ever in the NHS.

It has been a ploy of the Government to often hide behind pay review bodies. But a critical report published by the BMA today alleges interference by the Government into the doctors’ and dentists’ pay review body, the DDRB. The BMA report says remit letters have been used to impose pay freezes and caps, and to constrain the DDRB’s recommendations so that they fall within the Government’s ‘affordability targets’. Dr Vishal Sharma, chair of the BMA consultants committee, said: “Ministers cannot continue to argue that the DDRB is independent while doctors’ pay falls off a cliff and we have thousands of medical vacancies.”

What is needed is clear and constructive leadership. And this is where the Government has shown itself to be lacking.