Letters
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @NurseStandard, 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
Planning a seven-day-a-week NHS without extra funding is madness Why does the government hate nurses so much? They block our pay rises, do nothing about the cuts in the number of nurse training places, want to cap booking agency nurses, and now they are after our pay. They want to abolish our unsocial hours and weekend payments to fund the proposed seven-day-a-week NHS. How many of us would work weekends if we were not being paid for them? How many of us could afford to work unsocial hours if we were not paid for them? My pay would drop uncomfortably without my weekend payments. At RCN congress last month, members voted unanimously to oppose this latest attack on nursing. I applaud them for this, but it is only the first step. We need the public to know that the government wants to cut our pay so drastically that it could drive thousands of nurses out of the profession, and make covering weekends and bank holidays even more difficult. We need the public on our side, because the public love the NHS and this is another attack on it. We also need the public to realise how badly managed the NHS is under the present government – planning such huge changes without providing an extra penny of funding is utter madness. Drew Payne, north London
SAFE STAFFING GUIDANCE IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE SIDELINED At RCN congress last month, members condemned the decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to halt work on safe staffing guidance (news July 1). An overwhelming 99% voted in favour of a resolution deploring the decision to halt NICE’s work, and called on RCN council to lobby for the decision to be reversed.
I wholeheartedly agree with the 99%. We need to keep this issue firmly on the table by asking questions, writing letters and using social media to make our feelings known. We should be writing to our MPs asking why the completed report on safe staffing in A&E has not yet been published. And why is the government not seeing through its commitment to NICE? The Safe Staffing Alliance is holding a meeting on July 15 where we will determine our way forward. This is the issue we came together as an alliance to fight for, and we need to make sure post-Francis government commitments are upheld. Achieving safe nurse staffing levels in the NHS is too important to patient safety to be pushed to one side. Jane Ball, principal research fellow, University of Southampton, and member of the Safe Staffing Alliance
THE ‘NOISE’ SURROUNDING NURSE STAFFING WILL NOT DIMINISH Jennifer Hunt is absolutely right to stress that nurse staffing levels should
be evidence-based (letters June 24), and that such evidence is more likely to be trusted if obtained from an independent organisation such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). If chief nursing officer for England Jane Cummings really is upset by the ‘noise’ from the profession following NICE’s decision to suspend work on safe staffing guidance, I think she should consider early retirement. Unless this decision is reversed, I very much doubt that the ‘noise’ will diminish any time soon. James Smith, via email
ENGLAND’S CNO HAS SHOWN COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP Since Jane Cummings became chief nursing officer for England three years ago, patient safety and staff wellbeing have been her top priority. So although I was initially alarmed when it was revealed that the work on safe staffing guidance started by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence was being taken
32 july 8 :: vol 29 no RCNi.com 45 :: 2015 by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 23, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING STANDARD Downloaded from other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @NurseStandard, 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
Planning a seven-day-a-week NHS without extra funding is madness Why does the government hate nurses so much? They block our pay rises, do nothing about the cuts in the number of nurse training places, want to cap booking agency nurses, and now they are after our pay. They want to abolish our unsocial hours and weekend payments to fund the proposed seven-day-a-week NHS. How many of us would work weekends if we were not being paid for them? How many of us could afford to work unsocial hours if we were not paid for them? My pay would drop uncomfortably without my weekend payments. At RCN congress last month, members voted unanimously to oppose this latest attack on nursing. I applaud them for this, but it is only the first step. We need the public to know that the government wants to cut our pay so drastically that it could drive thousands of nurses out of the profession, and make covering weekends and bank holidays even more difficult. We need the public on our side, because the public love the NHS and this is another attack on it. We also need the public to realise how badly managed the NHS is under the present government – planning such huge changes without providing an extra penny of funding is utter madness. Drew Payne, north London
SAFE STAFFING GUIDANCE IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE SIDELINED At RCN congress last month, members condemned the decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to halt work on safe staffing guidance (news July 1). An overwhelming 99% voted in favour of a resolution deploring the decision to halt NICE’s work, and called on RCN council to lobby for the decision to be reversed.
I wholeheartedly agree with the 99%. We need to keep this issue firmly on the table by asking questions, writing letters and using social media to make our feelings known. We should be writing to our MPs asking why the completed report on safe staffing in A&E has not yet been published. And why is the government not seeing through its commitment to NICE? The Safe Staffing Alliance is holding a meeting on July 15 where we will determine our way forward. This is the issue we came together as an alliance to fight for, and we need to make sure post-Francis government commitments are upheld. Achieving safe nurse staffing levels in the NHS is too important to patient safety to be pushed to one side. Jane Ball, principal research fellow, University of Southampton, and member of the Safe Staffing Alliance
THE ‘NOISE’ SURROUNDING NURSE STAFFING WILL NOT DIMINISH Jennifer Hunt is absolutely right to stress that nurse staffing levels should
be evidence-based (letters June 24), and that such evidence is more likely to be trusted if obtained from an independent organisation such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). If chief nursing officer for England Jane Cummings really is upset by the ‘noise’ from the profession following NICE’s decision to suspend work on safe staffing guidance, I think she should consider early retirement. Unless this decision is reversed, I very much doubt that the ‘noise’ will diminish any time soon. James Smith, via email
ENGLAND’S CNO HAS SHOWN COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP Since Jane Cummings became chief nursing officer for England three years ago, patient safety and staff wellbeing have been her top priority. So although I was initially alarmed when it was revealed that the work on safe staffing guidance started by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence was being taken
32 july 8 :: vol 29 no RCNi.com 45 :: 2015 by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 23, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING STANDARD Downloaded from other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
