Image source, Getty ImagesByNick Triggle Health correspondentPublished12 February 2026 NHS staff in England and Wales are to get a 3.3% pay rise in the next financial year, the government has announced. The award covers around 1.5 million health staff, from nurses and midwives to physios and porters – the entire workforce apart from doctors, dentists and senior managers. But a number of health unions said they were disappointed with the award. Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Prof Nicola Ranger, said it was below the current level of consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 3.4%, which measures how prices have risen in the past year. "A pay award below the current level of inflation is an insult. Unless inflation falls, the government is forcing a very real pay cut on its NHS workers. "This knife-edge game-playing is no way to treat people who prop up a system in crisis." She said she would wait to see what the rest of the public sector and doctors received before deciding what to do.
Published: February 12, 2026 4:49 pm
Source: BBC — Read original