Letter: Not enough nurses in the NHS
Thursday 28th April 2011, 6:01AM BST.
Letter: There has been much criticism levelled at today’s nurses, predominantly surrounding the graduate path they must follow; and while not completely convinced this produces better nurses, I have considerable empathy with the profession.
The issue is not that modern nurses are “too posh to wash”, or “too clever to care”. It is that hospitals are hugely understaffed, and there is not enough nursing staff available to make the difference.
Nursing staff today do not have the luxury of time to spend with individual patients, and with current budget cuts within the NHS, the situation will only get worse.
Of an intake of more than 80 student nurses (of which just over 40 will qualify this summer) I understand just three have gained a promise of full-time employment in the NHS.
It is no wonder the Royal College of Nursing recently passed a no confidence mot-ion against Andrew Lansley and his NHS reforms. It remains to be seen if the Government will listen, and abandon a Health Bill universally criticised.
Peter Sayles
Oswestry
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So you want more sitting around at their stations doing nothing? get the ones we have now to buck their ideas up and the tax payer will thin about it.
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I’m really interested where you get the notion that nurses have time to sit around at their stations Mr Finch.
Please enlighten us all with your experience. That’s YOUR experience, not hearsay Mr Finch.
(No, I’m not a nurse or doctor, or even a patient. I don’t work for the NHS)
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The fact that the Government are clearly advertising big cuts in the NHS and now big Student Fees its clear to see why young tallented people are being turned away from these front line roles in the NHS.
The problem is here is that hospitals are too busy dealing with ‘red tape’ that they are spending money on the wrong people.
I bet, if you looked at any department you would find several highly paid managers, (I say highly paid compaired to the front line staff who work in the department), who sole aim is to hit the finacial targets imposed by the Government.
The Government are trying to cut these managers to save money (Great Idea). The silly thing is that the government is asking the managers to choose who goes, so guess what? they are choosing to keep their high paid managers and they are loosing the poorly paid front line staff. Soon there will be no staff for the managers to manage and the NHS will be privatised.
The Nurses are all needed so there should be an incentive to keep them. As a tax payer I would be happy to see more nurses at ‘their stations’ this would allow a faster response and a better service for those who need it.
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