3% pay rise for NHS workers

I briefly mentioned the proposed 1% pay rise for NHS workers in the maternity pay post but now the government has actually come out that there will be a 3% rise for NHS workers in England. This will include consultants, dentists, nurses, paramedics and salaried GPs. This will not include doctors in training or GP partners however. This is actually more than I thought it would be, but for some, they want more. Consultants are being balloted to see if strike action is warranted as they didn't get the 5% they were looking for. Nurses will get roughly £1000 extra annually on average but they wanted 12.5% (which would be £4000 extra) and may strike as well. Other union NHS staff may also stage a strike if they don't get the pay rise they want. 

Seems a bit ungrateful this sign

A lot of their arguments are that it's still a below inflation pay rise (which is predicted to go reach near 4% this year) and wont make up for the years of below inflation or non-existent pay rises. In the last 10 years, pay has dropped by £779 for doctors and £1,583 for nurses with inflation taken into account. So there is some merit to their arguments. 

However where is the funding for this pay rise coming from? GP practices are independent businesses and as yet, there is no talk about increasing funding for funding this pay rise. Practices that do give their staff the 3% pay rise will add £20,500 to their wage bill on average. As GP practices are independent businesses, they may be free to not offer this pay rise (depending on the employee contracts), though they will need some very good reasons to deny it to their employed doctors and nurses. This may harbour ill-will towards the partners and they may look upon other practices that have given it to their staff. I believe most GP practices will give their staff the pay rise, as most GPs are generally quite altruistic but it likely is a sign of how the government is really pushing GP partners to the limit. If being a partner becomes less and less financially viable, then it may be a push towards a nationalised salaried GP workforce or joining a big corporation like Babylon. Guess we'll see if the government will offer GP partners some appeasement in the future to boost morale.