IN response to recent news regarding nurses quitting the NHS, the CCG, which is responsible for the commissioning of services for the people of Bolton, is sadly demoralising and undervaluing nursing staff in a monumental way.

In seeking to improve the health of the people, it is employing health improvement trainers who have no nursing background or experience, and are being paid at a higher rate than most healthcare assistants and newly qualified nurses alike, whose roles are much greater and more varied, with much more responsibility.

The team leaders, who are of similar background as health trainers but with a little more experience as they have been in role longer, are being paid a band five, which is equivalent to a qualified nurse.

They have no nursing qualifications or knowledge and experience equivalent to a nurse, yet they are awarded the same pay which is utterly outrageous.

Some nurses are paid at that rate by the NHS for many years before they have the chance of a pay increase or promotion, sometimes having to undergo intense interview under extreme pressures in order to receive an increase of pay banding. These nurses are registered professionals who must prove their credentials every three years by revalidation to their governing body, which involves a great deal of work and constant updating of knowledge and skills.

Included in the health trainer system are staff who again are not trained to nursing standard, but are paid at band six equivalent to a junior sister’s pay and yet there is no underpinning knowledge of health that a nurse would have with neither the skills nor responsibilities to reflect their pay scale.

No surprise then that nurses feel betrayed and have lost faith with the establishment and are leaving the NHS to become beauticians, store assistants and child carers, etc.

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