Nurses pass vote of no confidence in Lansley

Conference delegates vote 99% in favour of motion as health secretary struggles to persuade public of merits of NHS reforms The Royal College of Nursing has overwhelmingly backed a motion of no confidence in Andrew Lansley’s handling of the NHS reforms. Delegates at the RCN conference in Liverpool voted 99% in favour of the motion as the beleaguered health secretary struggles to persuade the public of the merits of his health reforms. Nurses are angry that Lansley refused to deliver a keynote speech to the conference, opting instead to meet a group of around 60 nurses in Liverpool as part of the government’s “listening exercise” on the controversial reforms. However, the health secretary appeared unmoved by the almost unanimous dissent from a union traditionally seen as being more conservative in character than some. Responding to the vote, he insisted most NHS workers were “keen” on the reforms, despite the fact that unions including the British Medical Association have also condemned parts of the bill, as have patient groups, royal colleges and MPs from various parties. Pointing to the rare decision to “pause” the passage of the health and social care bill to listen to concerns about the plans and defy “myths” he claimed were being propagated, the health secretary said: “It’s not that the professions aren’t keen to do it. “What they are all keen to do, and particularly their representative bodies, is to make sure we get this legislation right. And I think we share that.” He said the government would amend the bill further to deal with “myths” and “misconceptions”, telling reporters: “Of course they’re substantive changes, because otherwise it would be trivial. We’re not here to do a trivial thing, we’re here to get it right. “This is a once in a generation opportunity to give patients greater control of the decisions being made about their care … greater opportunities for those in the frontline of the NHS not only to have resources get to the frontline but responsibility and freedom to use those resources better to improve care for patients. “That’s why actually the professions supported it, it’s why 90% of GPs’ surgeries across the country have stepped forward and said we want to be pathfinders, showing how we can do this. “We’ve already amended the bill and we will amend it further in order to make absolutely certain that some of the myths that are being propagated are dealt with, some of the misconceptions are dealt with.” NHS Health Nursing GPs Doctors Andrew Lansley Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Health policy Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.