Derry NHS workers call for living wage after becoming dependent on food banks

Some health workers have become dependent on food banks, it was claimed yesterday after a protest in Derry.

The protest outside Altnagelvin Hospital was organised in support of a campaign calling for the living wage to be introduced for all National Health Service (NHS) staff. The living wage has been suggested at a rate of £8.45 per hour. The current minimum wage is £7.50 per hour for people aged over 25. Also yesterday, a Derry doctor said it was ‘with deep regret’ that GPs in Northern Ireland have voted to take another step closer to leaving the health service. Members of the British Medical Association’s Northern Ireland General Practitioners Committee (NIGPC) agreed at a meeting in Belfast yesterday that practices could leave at a future date. NIGPC chair Dr Tom Black, who is based at Abbey Medical Practice in Derry, said the GP system in Northern Ireland ‘is on the brink’. “We feel we have no alternative to proceed with collecting undated resignations from our members," Dr Black told the BBC. "Continued inaction to save general practice has forced us into this situation. "The work of the Northern Ireland government may have stalled, but the need to provide safe and efficient healthcare to patients has not stalled. General practice is being delivered under unsustainable conditions that we can no longer tolerate." Speaking after the protest at Altnagelvin, Foyle People Before Profit MLA Eamonn McCann said more investment was needed in the health service. “Some NHS workers are dependent on food banks to feed their families,” he said. “Considering the vital importance of the NHS to every other family, this is outrageous. “Public money goes up in smoke while public services are starved of resources. “We need broad public support for the doctors and other staff. They are fighting for no less that the future of the NHS itself.”