Government tackles nursing over hospital care problems
Prime Minister David Cameron says: “We need to focus on nurses”, as he unveils a new plan to improve hospital care. But Unison warns job losses are leading to a collapse in morale among staff.
The plans for the NHS were announced by the prime minister, in response to criticism of patient treatment from the Care Quality Commission in October last year.
David Cameron said most patients were happy with care generally but there was a “real problem” in some hospitals with people not getting food or drink or being treated with respect.
In October, the CQC found that half of hospitals were failing to provide good enough nutrition to elderly patients, while 40 per cent do not offer dignified care. Of 100 hospitals investigated in England, 49 were found to generate minor, moderate or major concerns about nutritional standards for elderly people.
‘Patients, not paperwork’
The focus of the announcement is on nursing, promising that nurses will focus on “patients, not paperwork”, while all hospitals will be expected to implement regular ward rounds to “systematically and routinely check that patients are comfortable and properly fed and hydrated”.
A new Nursing Quality Forum of frontline nurses and nursing leaders will be tasked with promoting excellent care and ensuring good practice across the NHS. Patients will lead inspections of hospital wards, with local people becoming part of teams responsible for checking cleanliness and dignity standards.
The health system has conspired to undermine one of this country’s greatest professions. Prime Minister David Cameron
A new “friends and family” test will ask whether patients, carers and staff would recommend the hospital to their friends and family. The results will be published.
Mr Cameron visited Salford Royal Hospital in Manchester on Friday, accompanied by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. He called it a model hospital and said: “In a limited number of cases standards have fallen below what is acceptable, we have seen that in the CQC reports, we have seen it with our own experiences as constituency MP’s and elderly relatives not getting the care they need.”
Talking earlier about the importance of the proposals he said: “If we want dignity and respect, we need to focus on nurses and the care they deliver. Somewhere in the last decade the health system has conspired to undermine one of this country’s greatest professions. It’s the stifling bureaucracy. The lack of consequence for failing to treat people with dignity.”
Collapse in morale
But leading nurses union, Unison, said the government was “wasting time going over old ground” and called for more staff and an end to job losses.
Gail Adams, head of nursing at Unison, said: “All the research points to higher nurse to patient ratios delivering higher outcomes. Yet all over the country, nursing posts are being frozen, or even lost. And job losses elsewhere in the health service have a huge knock on effect on frontline care.
“It is a sad fact that only a quarter of nurses would now recommend joining their profession. This collapse in morale – together with the loss of jobs and dedicated NHS staff – will be a real barrier to delivering high quality patient care.”
Mr Cameron said the Royal College of Nursing backs the new plans and will be working with the government on implementing them.
Only a quarter of nurses would now recommend joining their profession. Unison’s Gail Adams
But the RCN has offered qualified support.
Dr Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing chief executive, said: “Nurses working in every field have one thing in common – they chose the profession because they want to care for people. The profession will welcome the moves to free up nurses to put care first and to focus all their energies on the needs of the patient.”
But he added: “There is very compelling evidence that the factor which affects patient care in a very profound way is staffing levels. The improvements being put forward today rely on having enough nurses to carry them out.”
The Labour party criticised the announcement, with senior figures saying NHS reform won’t be achieved while jobs are cut.
On Twitter on Friday Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition, said: “The PM is wasting £3.4bn on NHS restructuring whilst cutting 48,000 nursing jobs. Tell him to drop his health bill.”
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham added: “If David Cameron really wants to help nurses focus on patient care, he should listen to what they are saying and drop his unnecessary health bill.”