A new drive to
free up nurses to provide the care patients and relatives expect
has been announced today by Prime Minister David Cameron and
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.
The push will see nurses spending more time on front line care in
wards and other services, a senior ward nurse with whom the buck
stops, patients leading on inspections and a new 'friends
and family test' to show whether nurses and patients had
a good overall experience, or would want loved ones needing care
to be treated at each hospital.
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
“We know the vast majority of patients are very happy with the
care provided by the NHS. And I’ve seen the NHS at its very best.
But we have heard recently that in some hospitals patients are not
provided with the level care or respect they deserve and I am
absolutely appalled by this.
“If we want dignity and respect, we need to focus on nurses and
the care they deliver. The whole approach to caring in this
country needs to be reset. And it needs to start with this simple
fact. Caring for patients is what nurses do. Everything else comes second."
Rolling out the NHS Institute’s ‘Time to Care’ initiative will
free nurses from non-essential paperwork and excessive
bureaucracy, that add little or no value to patients, to spend
more time with patients. This has already helped staff in more
than half of acute trusts to spend extra time with patients. A
“red-tape challenge” will also be introduced to identify barriers
to preventing nurses from doing their job properly and remove them.
In place of non-essential paperwork and other unnecessary
activities, nurses will be able to undertake regular nursing
rounds which will ensure that every hour, they will be able to
check that every patient is comfortable. Alongside this, a new
incentive will be introduced for hospitals to report results on
the ‘NHS Safety Thermometer’ to track four key standards of safety
and nursing quality – pressure ulcers, falls, blood clots and
catheter-acquired urinary tract infections.
Strong national leadership, to spread best nursing practice care
across the NHS, will be provided by a new independent group of
experts. The Nursing Quality Forum will look at how the best
nursing practice can be spread throughout the NHS and how nursing
leadership on hospital wards can be strengthened.
A new patient-led inspection regime will also be established,
covering food, privacy, cleanliness and dignity. The results of
these inspections will be reported on publicly, to help drive up
standards of care. Results of patient feedback on their experience
of care will also be published, and a new indicator will be
introduced to all future national patient surveys, asking patients
about their experience of care.
Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, said:
"I have seen many examples of excellent nursing
leadership across the NHS. Nurses have told me that they want time
to care for their patients and that strong leadership is key to
making sure that standards for patients are high. These
initiatives will strengthen the focus on nurse leadership and
openness about the quality of care.
"Our ambition is to provide excellent care everywhere
and by establishing a new independent body of nursing and care
experts, we can help hospitals achieve this. By identifying what’s
working locally, and what’s not, we can spread best practice
across the board and begin to abolish practices that stand in the
way of giving patients what they deserve: the highest standards of care.”
Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said:
“Nurses working in every field have one thing in common – they
chose the profession because they want to care for people. The
profession will welcome the moves to free up nurses to put care
first, and to focus all their energies on the needs of their
patients. In particular, nurses themselves have emphasised the
enormous burden of the paperwork they have to complete, day in and
day out. An RCN survey found that UK nurses spend more than a
million hours a week on paperwork – time taken away from giving
patients the best possible care.
“Reducing this burden will be very widely welcomed, as will the
commitment to strengthening leadership on wards. Experienced
nurses – like ward sisters – can provide expert leadership to the
team. They need to be able to call the shots and supervise and
develop the wider workforce. We hope that employers locally will
support the Prime Minister’s commitment and ensure that staff are
supported in delivering care.”
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk