National Health Service (Industrial Action)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 3 July 1974.

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Photo of Mr Willie Hamilton Mr Willie Hamilton , Central Fife 12:00, 3 July 1974

Does my right hon. Friend recognise that almost every hon. Member on the Government benches will treat with the utmost contempt the remarks made by the right hon. and learned Member for Surrey, East (Sir G. Howe) in view of his Government's record in the treatment of hospital staff? We shall not shed many tears about the refusal of hospital nurses to work with agency nurses, nor about their decision to treat private patients in the same way as they treat NHS patients. Will my right hon. Friend, nevertheless, reconsider her decision not to give an interim payment to the nurses, when it is clear beyond peradventure that they will get a substantial increase from Lord Halsbury? If an interim increase will stop this kind of industrial practice, the sooner she makes that interim payment the better.