NHS campaigners in Essex are demanding more pay for nurses who "deserve more, as do their patients in their care" after the latest Government pay offer was refused.

Essex nurses have refused a pay rise of 5.5 per cent with two-thirds of the 145,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing who voted online saying the rise was not fair. The pay award was announced by the Chancellor in late July as she accepted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body, awarding the rise consolidated pay increase across all bands. This is expected to be paid next month and will be backdated to April 1, 2024.

As this is a pay award rather than a pay offer, the results of our consultation will not directly affect employers' payment of it. However, it shows our members' strength of feeling that something fundamental must change for nursing pay. Essex campaigners say the pay rise is not enough to keep staff in hospitals to care for patients and that staff feel " burnout, low morale and daily stress trying to keep patients safe."

The Save Southend NHS group fights for the rights of staff under the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, as well as other Essex hospital workers.

A spokesman said: "So the general consensus amongst staff is that a 5.5 per cent pay increase is not going to encourage staff to stay in the NHS or attract nurses back to a profession that already has severe staffing issues impacting on the care of their patients.

"The 14 years of paltry pay increases, which do not match nurses' skills or inflation, whilst they continue to endure burnout, low morale, and daily stress while trying to keep patients safe, will not be rectified by a mere 5.5 percent. Nurses are degree-educated workers and the backbone of our NHS – they deserve more, as do their patients in their care."

In a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting MP, he said: "We are witnessing a fundamental shift in the determination of nursing staff to stand up for themselves, their patients and the NHS they believe in.

"Many will support the new government's health and care agenda as set out in recent weeks and fully recognise the diagnosis of a failing NHS. Working closely with all other professionals, nursing staff are the lifeblood of the service. The government will find our continued support for the reforms key to their success."