By Nick Mann | 6 January 2012
Plans to improve quality in the health service by making nursing about ‘patients, not paperwork’ were announced today by the prime minister.
David Cameron said cutting the bureaucracy facing hospital nurses and ensuring regular ward rounds would help to ensure that every patient was cared for with compassion and dignity in a clean environment.
Under the plans, patient-led inspections of wards will also be introduced, with local people going into hospitals as part of teams to assess cleanliness, dignity and nutrition. Their findings will then be published.
In a bid to create ‘leadership on the wards’, a Nursing Quality Forum involving frontline nurses and nursing leaders will be set up. They will be charged with providing national leadership in promoting excellent care and ensuring good practice is adopted across the NHS.
Patients, carers and staff will also be asked whether they would recommend their hospital to their families and friends. The government plans to publish the results of these tests and said hospitals that ‘fail’ the test would be ‘held to account’.
Cameron said that action was needed because, while structural reform of the NHS was under way, there was something ‘fundamental that needs to be put right fast’.
He added: ‘We’ve got a real problem in some of our hospitals with patients not getting the food and drink they need or being treated with the respect they deserve. The Care Quality Commission found one in five hospitals wanting. I am absolutely appalled by this. And we are going to put this right.’
Advocating a focus on nurses and the care they provide, Cameron added: ‘Nursing needs to be about patients, not paperwork.
‘So we are going to get rid of a whole load of bureaucracy that stops nurses from doing what they do best. And in return patients should expect nurses to undertake regular nursing rounds – systematically and routinely checking that each of their patients is comfortable, properly fed and hydrated, and treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.’
The Royal College of Nursing, which Cameron said supported his comments, welcomed the move to free nurses from bureaucracy, but said that achieving the prime minister’s goals would depend on staffing levels and having the right mix of skills.
The union’s chief executive and general secretary, Dr Peter Carter, said: ‘Having the right number of staff on a ward with the right mix of skills can make all the difference in giving patients the care and attention they need – and we know that issues such as falls, errors and patient outcomes are affected very directly.
‘The improvements being put forward today rely on having enough nurses to carry them out. We hope that employers locally will support the prime minister’s commitment and ensure that staff are supported in delivering care.’
The NHS Confederation, which represents the various organisations making up the health service, said Cameron was ‘spot on’ to highlight the importance of strong leadership, robust processes and communication with patients.
However, deputy policy director Jo Webber warned against searching for a ‘silver bullet that resonates with the public but does not actually get to the fundamental problem’.
She added: ‘The prime minister must work with NHS leaders on this. They are the ones ultimately who are going to make this happen, working with frontline staff. The NHS Future Forum has a good track record of doing this.’
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said that people would take Cameron’s announcement with a ‘pinch of salt’, given his moves to restructure the NHS and cut nursing jobs.
‘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. His reckless decision to reorganise the NHS at this time of financial challenge not only proves he is out of touch but also threatens to throw the entire system into chaos,’ he said.
