Nursing Reforms 'Stupid' Say RCN

A Royal College of Nursing (RCN) poll of some 2,000 senior nurses’ has condemned aspects of the government’s nursing reform plans as “stupid”.

The unions strongest criticism was levelled at a plan for trainee nurses to work as a ‘healthcare assistant’ for a year.

Ministers had missed an opportunity to improve patient care after the Stafford Hospital scandal public inquiry, according to the union.

The poll found that senior nurses were concerned about unsafe staffing levels, with 71% saying they were not confident that staffing levels were always adequate and more than a third saying they were unsafe on a weekly basis.

The results of the poll has been published as the annual RCN conference gets underway in Liverpool this week.

Echoing a call made by Unison last week, the RCN say the poll highlights the need to establish minimum staffing levels.

This was also proposed in February by the Francis inquiry when it published its final report into the failings at Stafford Hospital – one of the biggest scandals in the history of the NHS.

Making 290 recommendations the damning report accused the NHS of putting corporate self-interest ahead of patients.

However, a government response, published in March, made no commitment to setting staffing-to-patient ratios.

RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: "We know that some of the most important recommendations from the Francis inquiry are being ignored, potentially leaving in place the systemic failures which allowed such a tragedy to happen in the first place."

(H/CD)