Letters
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @RogerEvansE1, post on the Nursing Standard Facebook page or visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk
Please keep letters to a maximum of 200 words, and include your full name and a daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited
Please show your support by signing my petition for fair pay in the NHS I have been a midwife for six years, caring for hundreds of expectant and new mothers. Because I love what I do and am proud and privileged to work as a midwife, I went on strike last week. I joined the industrial action for fair pay in response to health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rejection earlier this year of the recommended 1 per cent pay increase for NHS staff. If we are not recognised for our worth, midwives and other healthcare staff will leave the NHS in droves. That is why I went on strike and why I have started an online petition for fair pay at Change.org Like many other staff in the NHS, we midwives work under huge pressures every day and night of the week. The birth rate has seen a staggering rise in recent years, yet there has been no corresponding increase in the number of midwives. We can no longer find the time to take time in lieu for the days we work beyond our shifts, leading to hours of unpaid overtime. It is the same across much of the NHS. We get in early and go home late. We do 12-hour shifts, sometimes without a break. We go out in the middle of the night when we might already have worked all day. The workload is relentless, but we still care passionately about the women and babies in our care. If you want to show your support to midwives like me, please sign my petition (tinyurl.com/om78mf4). Natalie Carter, by email
INCENTIVES FOR GPs TO DIAGNOSE DEMENTIA GAVE WRONG MESSAGE Catharine Jenkins (Letters October 29) spoke out against the government’s plans to pay GPs £55 for every diagnosis of dementia they make.
Ms Jenkins, senior nurse lecturer at Birmingham City University, made the point that it is unfair for GPs to receive extra funding when their work cannot be reliably carried out alone and depends on high quality nursing care. She was not alone in criticising the proposals. The scheme was widely criticised by doctors, many of whom believe that rewarding GPs for making diagnoses could harm the patient-doctor relationship. Martin McShane, NHS England national clinical director for people with long-term conditions, defended the proposals (Letters November 26), saying these incentives ‘are paid to GP practices – not individuals – and are unlikely to amount to more than a few hundred pounds a year’. Common sense has now prevailed and NHS England has announced that there are no plans to extend the scheme beyond March. But diagnosis is only part of the picture.
If the government has funds to pump into the care of people with dementia, the money will be better spent on home care and support, 24/7 care and end of life care. Incentives are important for GPs, but we need to be sparing in the ways they are used and mindful of how they are perceived by the general public. Helen Evans, by email
DOES THE NURSING AND MIDWIFERY COUNCIL NEED FOUR LONDON BASES? Why does the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have such high overheads (News November 26)? Could it be because, in addition to its headquarters on Portland Place in London’s West End – for which it pays a peppercorn rent – it has two other offices in central London and one in east London, as well as addresses in Cardiff and Edinburgh. Everyone knows central London is the most expensive place in the UK. Does the NMC really need its
34 december :: volRCNi.com 29 no 14 by :: 2014 STANDARD Downloaded3 from ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 21, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @RogerEvansE1, post on the Nursing Standard Facebook page or visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk
Please keep letters to a maximum of 200 words, and include your full name and a daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited
Please show your support by signing my petition for fair pay in the NHS I have been a midwife for six years, caring for hundreds of expectant and new mothers. Because I love what I do and am proud and privileged to work as a midwife, I went on strike last week. I joined the industrial action for fair pay in response to health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s rejection earlier this year of the recommended 1 per cent pay increase for NHS staff. If we are not recognised for our worth, midwives and other healthcare staff will leave the NHS in droves. That is why I went on strike and why I have started an online petition for fair pay at Change.org Like many other staff in the NHS, we midwives work under huge pressures every day and night of the week. The birth rate has seen a staggering rise in recent years, yet there has been no corresponding increase in the number of midwives. We can no longer find the time to take time in lieu for the days we work beyond our shifts, leading to hours of unpaid overtime. It is the same across much of the NHS. We get in early and go home late. We do 12-hour shifts, sometimes without a break. We go out in the middle of the night when we might already have worked all day. The workload is relentless, but we still care passionately about the women and babies in our care. If you want to show your support to midwives like me, please sign my petition (tinyurl.com/om78mf4). Natalie Carter, by email
INCENTIVES FOR GPs TO DIAGNOSE DEMENTIA GAVE WRONG MESSAGE Catharine Jenkins (Letters October 29) spoke out against the government’s plans to pay GPs £55 for every diagnosis of dementia they make.
Ms Jenkins, senior nurse lecturer at Birmingham City University, made the point that it is unfair for GPs to receive extra funding when their work cannot be reliably carried out alone and depends on high quality nursing care. She was not alone in criticising the proposals. The scheme was widely criticised by doctors, many of whom believe that rewarding GPs for making diagnoses could harm the patient-doctor relationship. Martin McShane, NHS England national clinical director for people with long-term conditions, defended the proposals (Letters November 26), saying these incentives ‘are paid to GP practices – not individuals – and are unlikely to amount to more than a few hundred pounds a year’. Common sense has now prevailed and NHS England has announced that there are no plans to extend the scheme beyond March. But diagnosis is only part of the picture.
If the government has funds to pump into the care of people with dementia, the money will be better spent on home care and support, 24/7 care and end of life care. Incentives are important for GPs, but we need to be sparing in the ways they are used and mindful of how they are perceived by the general public. Helen Evans, by email
DOES THE NURSING AND MIDWIFERY COUNCIL NEED FOUR LONDON BASES? Why does the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have such high overheads (News November 26)? Could it be because, in addition to its headquarters on Portland Place in London’s West End – for which it pays a peppercorn rent – it has two other offices in central London and one in east London, as well as addresses in Cardiff and Edinburgh. Everyone knows central London is the most expensive place in the UK. Does the NMC really need its
34 december :: volRCNi.com 29 no 14 by :: 2014 STANDARD Downloaded3 from ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 21, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
