Nurses need help – not another eye catching initiative

A member of the Commons Health Select Committee, Liberal Democrat MP for the West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly constituency of St Ives, Andrew George, is urging the Prime Minister to listen to the nursing profession rather than just “those who pontificate about nursing” if he wishes to make any real impact to improve patient experience in NHS hospitals.

Mr George, who has campaigned to improve staffing levels on hospital wards and against the Government’s Health Bill, said: “If the PM wishes to speak up for patients then it would be logical for him to speak up for nurses, rather than down to them, or to imply blame on a whole profession.

“In many hospital settings nurses are simply run off their feet. Whilst I am sure they would welcome any constructive proposals which would help them deliver the clinical standards they came into the profession to provide, it won’t help if this initiative simply produces another report which pontificates about their profession but ignores what I believe is the biggest problem for patient care, on many hospital wards – inadequate staffing levels.

“He could start by ditching the damaging Health Bill and revisiting his pre-election pledges which included, for example, increasing midwife numbers by 3,000.

“Already, this morning, some commentators are, like those before, confusing the role of nurses as professional clinicians with the role of healthcare assistants. That does not help what I hope will be a genuine constructive effort to help nurses achieve greater job satisfaction through improving patient experience of NHS hospital wards where nursing staff levels have become dangerously threadbare.”