Up to 170 workers who make up the “backbone” of the Royal Bolton Hospital need improved pay to avoid a crisis of morale, union officials warn.  

This comes with healthcare support workers at the hospital having to work shifts of up to 12 hours while coping with huge pressures thanks to the pandemic and its legacy, which has left some with “long Covid” symptoms and lasting trauma.

Despite this healthcare support workers can be paid as little as £18,546 a year amounting to £7.85 per hour take home pay, less than many of their colleagues who do similar work.

Unison Bolton health branch secretary Linda Miller said: “The auxiliaries have always been the backbone of the hospital and they’ve not been paid accordingly.

“We’ve campaigned for the last three years for them to be re-banded.”

Ms Miller says healthcare assistants, who are rated as band two on NHS pay scales, in many cases work just as hard as their colleagues on band three who receive at least £20,330.

Ms Miller said: “The reason we want to do this is we want to make things better and if staff are happier on the wards that makes things better for patients.”

Unison treasurer Bernadette Davis, who worked as a healthcare assistant herself for seven years, agreed they must be re-banded so the work they do is properly paid.

She said: “It would make them feel more valued, because where we are now, morale is at rock bottom.”

She added: “The duties that we did for them, that they expected you to do for them over the years for no extra pay, its not on.”

Ms Davis said a doctor she had worked with had once called them the “secret army of the NHS” given the invaluable work they do.

She said: “It’s like a flower, if you look after it, if you water it then it grows.”

Both Ms Miller and Ms Davis have continued to work on the frontline during the pandemic.

They say that they will hope to meet with management by the end of this month to secure an agreement that is best for staff and patients.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust deputy chief executive and director of people James Mawrey said: “Our Healthcare Assistants are an invaluable part of our team, and provide high levels of care for our patients.

"We are so grateful for the work they do.

“All our staff are paid in line with a nationally agreed job evaluation system but we will always engage in conversations to make sure our staff are appropriately banded and remunerated.”