I worked for Matt Hancock and I say this: ministers need to pay-up and end the NHS strikes

‘We could all see the crisis that was developing … money was found for services, [but] it was not found for staff.’ Matt Hancock pictured on Downing Street in March 2020. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Rishi Sunak and his ministers may want to move on from the political turmoil of 2022, but the crises it left behind live on. And nowhere is this more present than in the escalating disputes with healthcare workers.

When Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing leader, toured NHS trusts last summer, speaking to burnt-out and frustrated staff before they cast their ballots on whether to strike, she urged the government to engage. The problem was that there was no one around to negotiate with. The caretaker Johnson government was absent and disempowered; the Truss government that followed it would self-destruct in a matter of days.