Major NHS review: RCN highlights vital role of nurses
The Royal College of Nursing has called on Wes Streeting to grow the workforce and improve nurse pay, following the announcement of a “raw and honest” review into the NHS due to worsening waiting lists.
Mr Streeting, the new health and social care secretary, announced earlier today that leading surgeon and former Labour health minister Lord Ara Darzi would lead an investigation into issues facing the NHS.
“The only route to bringing down waiting lists is through nursing”
Patricia Marquis
This review, Mr Streeting said, would inform the government’s 10-year plan to “radically reform” the health service and came after the NHS reported that patient waiting lists had once again risen.
“Anyone who works in or uses the NHS can see it is broken,” Mr Streeting said. “This government will be honest about the challenges facing the health service and serious about tackling them.
“This investigation will uncover hard truths and I’ve asked for nothing to be held back,” the new health secretary said.
He called for a “raw and frank assessment” of the NHS, adding: “This is the necessary first step on the road to recovery for our National Health Service, so it can be there for us when we need it, once again.”
On the same day of Mr Streeting’s announcement, NHS England’s most recent waiting list data suggested that the hospital backlog has now reached 7.6m; this is an increase on the previous month.
RCN England director Patricia Marquis welcomed the announcement of the review into the NHS and said the need for action “could not be clearer”.
Ms Marquis said, however, that Mr Streeting’s plans for the NHS must include improvements to the size of the nursing workforce and to the treatment of nurses.
“Millions languish on waiting lists, suffering in pain and unable to get on with their lives,” she said. “It’s an intolerable situation and a drag on the economy.
“The only route to bringing down waiting lists is through nursing. We deliver the vast majority of care and yet are missing tens of thousands,” she said.
“The government’s growth mission must include a plan to grow the nursing workforce, including by raising pay,” said Ms Marquis.
Meanwhile, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard pledged to work “closely” with the government on its review into the health service.
She said: “Frontline NHS staff are doing an incredible job, despite the huge pressures they face, to deliver care to over a million people every day.
“But we know that they face huge struggles and patients are not always getting the timely, high quality care they need.
“This comprehensive analysis will be an important step in helping us to build an NHS fit for the future,” she said.
Lord Darzi added: “As every clinician and every patient knows, the first step to addressing any health problem is a proper diagnosis.
“My work will analyse the evidence to understand where we are today – and how we got to here – so that the health service can move forward.
“This is an important step to reestablishing quality of care as the organising principle of the NHS,” he said.
Lord Darzi has a history of leading reviews into parts of the NHS. Under prime minister Gordon Brown, he was tasked with leading a widescale review to develop a vision of an NHS fit for the 21st century.
Known as the NHS Next Stage Review, it involved the views of thousands of clinical, social care and health service professionals, as well as members of the public.
The stated purpose of the review was to focus on what the NHS could do to improve the prevention of ill health, in partnership with other authorities and agencies.
The high-profile findings were published in High Quality Care for All: NHS Next Stage Review Final Report on 30 June 2008.
Prior to that, he was asked to develop a strategy to meet the health needs of Londoners, which was published in July 2007 in the report Healthcare for London: A Framework for Action.
Largely implemented, it recommended the development of academic health science centres and the introduction of more primary services in one place, known as polyclinics.
While a national advisor to the government, Lord Darzi authored the 2007 report Saws and Scalpels to Lasers and Robots – Advances in Survey, which argued for a change to the way surgery was organised.
