RCN Nursing Campaign
The NHS is our number one priority. We will increase funding for the NHS each year, in real terms, in the next Parliament. We have made this decision in order to meet the rising demands on the NHS, while at the same time maintaining our objective of achieving results for patients that are at least as good as any in the world. These demands on the NHS include an increasing and ageing population, public health threats and complex new treatments. This does mean that we cannot make spending promises which add to costs or which would prevent the NHS from using the resources it will receive in the most effective way possible, in the light of the best available clinical evidence.
Conservatives have a number of policies which go towards meeting the aims of the Nursing Counts campaign.
We have proposed five key changes to prevent the tragic events at Mid Staffordshire from happening again and to protect staff and patients who speak out: We will have tougher inspections to root out failure, a stronger voice for patients, more power for patients to hold failing hospitals accountable, an end to box-ticking and targets and we will expose hospitals to public scrutiny.
Nurses have a pivotal role to play in the delivery of care, in commissioning and delivering good patient outcomes. The task of the next Government must be to work with the nursing profession, by freeing-up and trusting nurses to deliver the high-quality care that patients need. We will abolish process targets and with them the bureaucracy which has consistently undermined the professionalism and motivation of nurses.
The role of the nurse has extended over the years. Nurses are now doing more clinical work. They have specialist roles, powers to prescribe medicines and have a holistic view of care for patients. However there are many nurses who would like their role extended further. In some areas, nurses already work alongside GPs in practice-based commissioning teams and we will encourage more nurses to take a lead on this.
In order to prioritise patient safety, we will give nurses the contractual right to act as whistleblowers and to raise any concerns directly with the NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission. Nurses who raise concerns will do so with anonymity and without the threat of disciplinary action.
We will improve nurses’ skills through training and have proposed a number of measures to do this. For example, we support graduate level entry for registered nurses and one-year preceptorship programmes could become the norm for all newly-qualified nurses.
The Conservatives have pledged to improve the nation’s public health. The Conservative approach is local, recognising that the social causes of ill health vary widely throughout the country. We will empower local communities to find the right solutions for their particular area – and we will ensure they are rewarded for the results they achieve. Such an approach would be more focussed, with the creation of a new Department of Public Health to enshrine prevention at the heart of our plans for healthcare. Such an approach will cut right across the work of government, whether that be promoting sport in schools or helping reduce binge drinking.
We will also ensure those with a stable, predictable, long-term condition will have access to an individual budget. If someone with a long-term condition, who is living at home, is able to be assessed through a single assessment process then a ‘pooled budget’ could be determined for them. The calculation of the budget would consist of two parts: one, social care and means-tested, the other healthcare-related and free. This will result in an individual and their carer being given the flexibility and empowerment to choose their providers. They should be able to exercise that flexibility across the social/healthcare divide.
