Pay awards for health professionals working in Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care bodies are unlikely to be implemented until late in the pay year – which will have a ‘devastating’ impact on waiting lists.
Supplementary evidence to the Pay Review Body submitted this month by the SoR reveals that an expected delay in pay awards will only exacerbate the recruitment and retention crisis afflicting radiographers in Northern Ireland.
This delay will further increase Health and Social Care (HSC) waiting lists and risk to patients.
A year of despair
Cora Regan, SoR Northern Ireland national officer, explained that the 2023-24 pay award was not implemented in full in Northern Ireland until late summer 2024.
Ms Regan, SoR Northern Ireland national officer, said: “The last year has been one of despair for many of our members in Northern Ireland. Industrial action over the non-payment of the 2024-25 award was averted only because we were given a staggered award – but this means that HSC staff will still be receiving some of their 2024-25 pay award in the 2025-26 pay year.
“There is very little prospect that whatever award the PRB recommends will be paid promptly, which will make it harder to recruit and retain radiographers – meaning that waiting lists continue to increase.”
One in 10 awaiting diagnostics
More than one in 10 people in Northern Ireland are currently waiting for a diagnostic test. Radiography professionals support nine out of 10 patients in Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. They work in diagnostic services, carrying out X-rays, MRI and CT scans, and in therapeutic services, planning and delivering radiotherapy to cancer patients.
HSC, much like the NHS, is struggling to recruit and retain radiographers. The average vacancy rate in radiography departments is 13 per cent – and up to 38 per cent in some departments.
As a result, 218,035 people in Northern Ireland – more than 10 per cent of the population – are now waiting for a diagnostic test.
Feeding the recruitment crisis
Ms Regan added: “Every month that passes with HSC professionals in Northern Ireland earning less than their NHS counterparts in the rest of the UK injures morale and feeds Northern Ireland’s retention and recruitment crisis.
“Even with a new pay offer, our members will be paid considerably less than radiographers in the Republic of Ireland, where the starting salary for a Band 5 radiographer is more than £5,000 higher than in Northern Ireland. If radiography professionals living near the border can work in a hospital 20 minutes’ drive away and earn £5,000 more, why would they choose to work in Northern Ireland?
“The argument for the recommended award to be significantly above inflation – and far in excess of the Westminster government’s suggested 2.8 per cent – is even louder and more resonant in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK.
“People are dying as a consequence of the staffing crisis in Northern Ireland’s health and care system. We cannot afford another repeat of the chaos of this past year. Our members deserve better. Our patients deserve better.”
SoR members in Northern Ireland participated in a 48-hour strike on 21 and 22 September 2023 and a 12-hour strike on Thursday 18 January 2024.
(Image: Photo by William Phillips)