A Northumberland nurse has said the Government's proposed plan to give NHS staff a 3% pay rise this year is "an insult after everything we've been through".
Pointing not just to the stress of the pandemic, but also to the worsening cost-of-living crisis, the community nurse - who asked to be known only as Sophie - said they knew of colleagues who had been forced to rely on food banks to get by.
Sophie, a member of the trade union UNISON, said that, given the level of inflation, the 3% offer as "in reality a significant pay cut".
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She told ChronicleLive: "It's an insult after everything we have been through. Last year was the first time we'd had a pay rise in years but since then inflation has gone through the roof.
"Now with the cost of living crisis - we have staff who are struggling to afford to run a car, and all the little things add up. Now lots of people are fed up with it."
She said that other NHS professions - such as Healthcare Assistants (HCAs) - were also seeing morale drop. "Some of them just think 'why bother'," she said. "As healthcare staff we work 24/7 days. We are expected to work Christmas. We don't get the same breaks that other people get. It's a slap in the face."
Sophie said that the outpouring of public affection around the country - including from senior politicians like the Prime Minister - had helped morale during the Covid-19 crisis, but this wasn't enough.
"During the pandemic lots of NHS staff did appreciate the clapping - at the beginning," she said. "But claps don't pay the bills. And that's especially true when you are looking at inflation hitting 7 or 8%. This offer is in reality a significant pay cut.
"The Government are exploiting the fact that we care."
She also said it was "shocking" to see NHS nurses forced to rely on food banks, adding: "I know of registered nurses having to use food banks. In this day and age that's shocking. That's nursing staff who have paid into the system for many years now having to rely on charity - it's awful."
Sara Gorton, UNISON's head of nursing, said: "This tight-fisted proposal falls well short of rising costs and staff hopes. It’s barely half the rate of inflation, which is far from peaking and won't for many more months.
"This will go down like a lead balloon with health workers struggling to fill up at the pump, buy groceries and pay bills. It would be a wage cut in all but name."
Ms Gorton said that, after the years of difficulty the NHS has faced during the Covid-19 crisis, the Government was "expecting miracles" from hard-up staff.
Inflation is expected to rise from 5.5% in January to almost 8% in April.
Another industry body, the Royal College of Nursing added that "nursing pay is a political choice" and said the Government proposal showed it was "not serious" about tackling the NHS staffing crisis.
The RCN's chief exec Pat Cullen said members would see the pay offer as "a deliberate attempt to pitch nurses against patients".
But the Government said it "hugely valued and appreciated all our NHS staff".
The Nurses United grassroots group has also argued there should be a "fully-funded and restorative" 15% pay rise for all NHS staff.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are rightly giving NHS workers another pay rise this year. This needs to be proportionate to pay rises in the wider economy, and take the economic context into account including inflationary pressures.
"It also needs to balance rewarding our hard working public sector workers with ensuring we can continue with front line service delivery, while tackling the Covid backlogs and growing our NHS workforce."
A decision on the NHS pay rise proposal will be finalised in the summer.
