Almost a third of general practice nursing staff in England have still not received a pay rise for 2024/25, a survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has revealed.
The RCN stressed there was a ‘pay crisis’ in GP surgeries and that practice nurses were being ‘repeatedly failed’ by the government on this issue.
The survey – completed by more than 1,600 general practice nursing staff between December and January – has shown that 29.7% of those directly employed by their practice received no pay rise at all for 2024/25.
Almost half (45%) said they were given an increase of less than the 6% promised by the government and just 20.9% said they were given the full 6% or more.
Some 4.4% were still waiting for confirmation of their pay uplift for 2024/25.
Last summer, the government in England had promised a 6% pay rise for GPs and other salaried practice staff, including nurses and provided an extra £311m to help surgeries cover the extra cost in the autumn.
In August 2024, NHS England also made clear that it ‘firmly expected’ GP partners to use the income boost to fund a pay rise for practice staff in full, backdated to April 1.
The RCN warned that the government’s plans to deliver more care in the community risk being ‘critically undermined’ by a ‘pay crisis’ in GP practices.
Executive director of RCN England, Patricia Marquis, said GPN staff were being ‘repeatedly failed’ by the government on pay.
‘While the government has made it clear that it wants to move more care into the community, it is failing to invest in those tasked with making it happen,’ she said.
‘An understaffed workforce is already struggling to recruit and retain people to the profession needed to deliver high-quality care to a growing number of patients.’
The union once again urged the government to change the funding model for general practice and ringfence money for practice nurses.
Ms Marquis said ‘failing to act’ on this issue will only ‘push people away’ from the profession and risks forcing more people to visit A&E to access care.
Separately, public polling undertaken by the RCN in January has revealed that over half of the public (53%) said they did not think there was enough capacity in their local practice.
Despite this concern, over three-quarters (78%) said they regularly accessed their GP services.
The news from the RCN follows a survey carried out by Nursing in Practice last autumn which at the time suggested as many as half of general practice nursing staff across the UK were still waiting on a pay rise for 2024/25.
The same survey also showed that more than a quarter of general practice nursing staff were considering leaving their role within the next 12 months.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government inherited a ‘broken system’ where GPNs had been ‘neglected for years’.
‘We hugely value the vital work of general practice nurses and have proposed the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an extra £889 million.
‘Government funding has been made available for pay uplifts, and this should be passed on to salaried practice staff.’
A version of this story first appeared on our sister publication Nursing in Practice.
