Local MP Alex Cunningham spoke out in Parliament against the Prime Minister’s suggestion for greater supervision of nurses by patients groups, and praised the tremendous job NHS nurses are doing in the face of huge cuts in their numbers.
Prime Minister David Cameron recently announced that nurses will now have to undertake hourly ward rounds, with members of the public to be allowed to inspect hospitals. In the House of Commons, Alex asked the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley if he agreed with the Prime Minister’s comments, which would mean yet another burden placed on nurses at a time when they are facing huge cuts to their services. The Secretary of State said he absolutely agreed with the Prime Minister, and that ‘the public have a right to participate in inspections’.
Alex said:
“Nurses do in fact, already conduct very regular ward rounds, and to make them tick a box to say they are doing it every hour will simply add more bureaucracy.
“They do an exceptional job in providing high quality care for patients in the UK and for the Prime Minister to undermine them in this way is appalling. By saying he wants extra nurses running around wards, on all these hourly bed rounds, he is simply ignoring the fact that this will cost a significant amount of money that he is not willing to provide
“If the PM really wants to help nurses focus on patient care, he should listen to what they are saying and drop his unnecessary Health Bill which is who is wasting the NHS £3.45bn on back-office restructuring whilst axing 48,000 nursing posts. Day by day, it is becoming increasingly clear that you cannot trust the Tories with the NHS.”