THE ROYAL College of Nursing (RCN) condemned the Labour Government’s announcement of hospital league tables and its threat to scapegoat and sack NHS workers yesterday.
Addressing an audience of ‘NHS Providers’, Health Secretary Wes Streeting launched a new round of his war on the NHS, blaming its problems on ‘bad apples’ in the workforce.
RCN General Secretary Patricia Marquis said: ‘To raise standards, the health secretary needs to fill tens of thousands of nurse vacancies.
‘Employers want to see a workforce plan for hiring people, when too many are quitting and student nurse numbers are falling.
‘We should not be tolerating poor management but scapegoating trust leaders for under-investment and systemic failures is not the solution.
‘NHS staff must not be pitted against one another.
‘Tables and rankings without addressing root causes could undermine public confidence.
‘Government must start by addressing high levels of nursing vacancies that continue to put patient care at risk.
‘Nurses want government and the NHS to be transparent though on the real numbers of patients lining corridors right now – the figures should be released this winter to eradicate the dangerous practice.
‘Meanwhile, this country is named and shamed in global rankings on nursing pay and staffing levels, and that should force government action.’
Streeting launched a ‘no-holds-barred’ attack on the NHS, warning that hospitals are to be ranked in a league table and that ‘turnaround teams’ will be sent into struggling hospitals to threaten hard-pressed staff.
Streeting told his audience that there will be ‘no more turning a blind eye to failure’, and claimed that problems in the NHS are down to ‘rotten apples’ in management who ‘give the rest of the profession a bad name’.
Streeting claimed: ‘The budget showed this government prioritises the NHS, providing the investment needed to rebuild the health service.
‘Today we are announcing the reforms to make sure every penny of extra investment is well spent and cuts waiting times for patients.
‘There’ll be no more turning a blind eye to failure. We will drive the health service to improve, so patients get more out of it for what taxpayers put in.
‘Our health service must attract top talent, be far more transparent to the public who pay for it, and run as efficiently as global businesses.
‘With the combination of investment and reform, we will turn the NHS around and cut waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks.’
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, responded that Streeting’s plans ‘risk demoralising staff and make recruitment and retention of staff more difficult’.