Concerns over care have been ‘hidden’ to avoid rows, says David Cameron
Politicians have “hidden away” concerns about the quality of care in NHS hospitals because they are too respectful of nurses, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister said that he and other leaders had been too wary of criticising standards of care for fear of rows with nurses.
But “chilling” evidence of poor care for elderly patients meant that it was time to “speak up” about standards.
Mr Cameron, who visited hospitals in the North West yesterday, called for changes in the way nurses do their jobs.
Regulators including the Care Quality Commission have recently raised serious concerns about the basic care of NHS patients, especially the old. Investigators last year found that one in five hospitals fails to provide decent standards of sanitation and nutrition for older patients.
Mr Cameron said that poor standards had been allowed to develop because politicians had failed to speak frankly about the work of nurses.
“The vast majority do a brilliant job, there is clearly a problem in some hospitals in some settings where we’re not getting the standards of care that the nation expects,” Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 4.
“Politicians, frankly, have done nurses a disservice by not talking about this. Such is our respect for nursing that we’ve
almost hidden away concerns about this.”
He added: “You’ve seen the Care Quality Commission report, I’ve seen constituency correspondence with some chilling stories about how some people’s relatives have been treated, and so it’s time speak up about this issue.
“We have not had a public discussion about the issue and who better to do that than the Prime Minister?”
Mr Cameron has previously promised to reform the NHS to allow professionals, such as nurses, more freedom over the way they work, and pledged to get rid of the centrally imposed targets of the Labour government.
Yesterday, he said he wanted nurses to carry out hourly ward rounds to check that patients were being properly fed and cared for.
“It’s the Prime Minister’s job to speak up on issues people care about, and to point to areas where we’ve got brilliant practice in our NHS but we could do better,” he said.
“Yes, that does mean setting some standards and discussing that at a national level.”
A new nursing “quality forum” of nursing leaders and front-line nurses will be set up, Mr Cameron said. It will “make sure that proper nursing rounds are done”.
Andy Burnham, the Labour shadow health secretary said: “People have learnt from bitter experience to take David Cameron’s pronouncements on the NHS with more than a pinch of salt.”
