STAFF at East Surrey Hospital will walk out at noon today as part of a nationwide demonstration over pay.
Across the country, hospital workers will stage a protest from midday to 1.30pm against the ongoing cap on their salaries.
At the Department of Health in Westminster and the ACC in Liverpool, hundreds of protestors are expected, waving giant cheques for £1.5bn made payable to the government. Union leaders claim the cheques represent the money medical staff "donate" to the government in unpaid overtime.
Hospital workers are also furious that calls for a 1 per cent hourly pay rise have been ignored by the government and Unison leaders say they have invited Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt to meet with them to discuss the issue.
Christina McAnea, Unison head of health, said: "The reality is that the Government has ignored the 1% increase to hourly rates of pay recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body. And instead, they have imposed a continued pay freeze for most NHS staff in England."
She added: "This Government is seriously underfunding the NHS and expecting staff to bear the brunt of this by taking a cut in pay. If the Secretary of State recognises that staff are the NHS's greatest asset he needs to do more than just use fine words."
Staff at East Surrey Hospital, who will stage their demonstration from midday-1.30pm, will be showing their support for the unions and the TUC-led campaign All Together For The NHS.
Speaking on behalf of the campaign, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Every year hard-working health service staff put in many extra hours which they don't get paid for.
"These efforts save the government a hefty £1.5bn a year. But even though this unpaid overtime is effectively keeping the NHS going, health service employees increasingly feel that the government is taking them for granted.
"NHS staff have had their pay frozen and capped, which has placed a huge squeeze on their household finances. With the economy now firmly in recovery mode, health service workers might have been forgiven for thinking that the days of public sector pay restraint would be over. But the government has chosen to ignore the advice of the pay review body and is continuing to hold down the salaries of nurses, paramedics and other NHS workers for at least another year."
