02 May 2003
Health minister John Hutton has urged nurses to become hospital governors as part of the government's foundation trust reforms.
Speaking at the Royal College of Nursing's annual conference in Harrogate this week, the minister said the legislation needed to set up the new trusts would also give all foundation hospital staff the opportunity to elect a representative to its board of governors.
'We expect nurses will be among those staff elected to serve as hospital governors in NHS foundation hospitals. Hospital governors elected by staff will work alongside governors directly elected by local people,' he added.
But nursing shortages rather than new opportunities were foremost in delegates' minds. RCN general secretary Beverly Malone said the NHS relied too heavily on agency and overseas nurses.
On average, wards had 20% fewer nurses than they needed and the position could get worse as 50,000 nurses reach retirement age in the next five years, she added.
But Hutton countered that new recruits were flooding into the service. And he reiterated the promise that by 2008 there would be 80,000 more nurses working in the NHS. 'The latest provisional figures show that there are almost 50,000 more nurses working in the NHS in England than there were in 1997,' he said.
'We have achieved our targets ahead of schedule but are committed to further growth and measures to improve retention.'
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