Most people in Britain think nurses and medical staff are still not paid enough, a survey has found.

The poll of 1,053 British adults, carried out exclusively for the PA news agency, found that 71% thought care workers were underpaid, up 8% on April 2023.

Almost a fifth (19%) said they felt they were paid the right amount, while just 3% said care workers were paid too much.

Around 60% of people also said they think nurses are underpaid, up 3% from last April.

However, more than a quarter (28%) said they were paid the right amount and 5% said they were paid too much.

Last month, members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England rejected the government’s 5.5% pay rise by two-thirds in a record turnout of around 145,000.

The pay award was announced by the chancellor at the end of July, shortly after Labor won the general election.

Of those surveyed by Ipsos, around 41% said the nurses were right to reject the offer, while 29% said it was the wrong decision.

RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “The public is right that medical staff are underpaid and that is why they rejected the Government’s pay award.

“Our profession is highly skilled and we provide the vast majority of patient care, but we are not properly evaluated.”

When it announced the rejection, the RCN said its vote was not for more strikes, with the union required by law to hold a postal ballot to authorize further union action.

Nurses staged strikes in December 2022 and 2023 in a dispute with the government over pay.

The Ipsos poll found that Britons were divided over whether they would support nurses if future redundancies were to take place.

Some 38% said they would support nurses going on strike if the Government did not give them a bigger pay rise in the future, while the same proportion said they would oppose union action.

Prof Ranger added: “Nobody in my profession or the public wants to see more healthcare strikes.

“The government wants to reform a ‘broken NHS’ but it cannot do so without tackling the healthcare crisis. If not, the NHS and social care will continue to be plagued by unsafe staffing levels.”

The survey comes as the RCN urged the Government to “fix a broken nurse education model”.

Analysis of data by the Ucas union found that the number of people studying to become nurses has fallen in every region of England.

Prof Ranger said: “The prospect of huge debt and a lack of financial support is putting off the nurses of the future, threatening to leave patients without the highly trained healthcare professionals they desperately need.

“Nursing is an incredible career, but to fix a broken NHS, the government needs to fix a broken nurse education model.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We know what nurses have been through in recent years and how difficult it is at the moment. That is why, despite the bleak economic legacy, the chancellor has given them an above-inflation pay rise.

“This government wants to work with nurses to get the NHS out of the worst crisis in its history, get it back on its feet and fit it for the future. We will work with NHS staff to change this together.

“We have introduced legislation for the first fair pay agreement for adult social care workers to properly reward hardworking staff and improve recruitment and retention. To achieve this it is vital that we first consult widely to ensure that the policy is right for workers, providers and people who rely on care and support.”