The Government’s responses to the Francis report are now out;
I’ve only scanned the headlines so far because it’s a mass of documents and a
lot of data to download. I’ll do a proper analysis in a couple of days.
So far pressure is being put on the Royal College of Nursing
to split its union function away from its regulatory one – which I have called
for a long time. No mention of doing the same for the BMA – it’s just as
important that Doctors are both regulated and represented properly and one
organisation can’t both punish and protect at the same time.
Every patient will have a named nurse – which sounds fine as
it makes one person responsible. However there are three shifts a day, sickness
and holidays as well as courses to attend etc. it means if the named nurse isn’t
there nothing will happen. Better to have a named Doctor to supervise overall
treatment and be responsible but of course that is never going to happen.
The problem is that patients often rarely see a nurse – most work
is done by unqualified care assistants. There should be a regulatory body for
them with the ability to ‘strike off’ a care assistant. That’s not happening.
The new criminal offence I dealt with a few days ago if you
scroll back – a pointless gimmick.
The ‘duty of candour’, will require that patients or families
are told when there has been a medical error – at the moment they get hushed
up. It’s alright as far as it goes but doesn’t go far enough.
It may be that I just reviewed the report without meaning to,
hopefully there is some more in it besides.
I think my fear is that the Health Secretary, who still practises
on a part time basis, is still too concerned about the sensitivities of the health
professionals.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
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