Does Ms Keegan think we have 135,000 vacancies in the NHS because of break ups?
GMB Union has branded comments by a Minister over nurses' food bank usage as displaying a ‘staggering lack of empathy’.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan's told Sky News many nurses using food banks are doing so because of a broken ‘relationship or boiler'.
GMB is currently balloting almost 20,000 workers across the NHS, including nurses.
Ambulance workers in Scotland and Northern Ireland have already voted to strike in GMB industrial action ballots.
Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said:
“Nurses and other NHS workers have been forced to use food banks because they are desperate after more than a decade of real terms pay cuts under the Conservatives.
“To suggest they do it because of a relationship bust up displays a staggering lack of empathy.
“Does Ms Keegan think we have 135,000 vacancies in the NHS because of break ups? Or is it the systematic underpayment of health professionals.
“The Minister needs to accept the damage her Government has done to the NHS and help fix it, rather than indulging in damaging rhetoric.”
