DoH nurse disinterest 'held back' primary care
29 April 2009
The DoH's apparent disinterest in practice nurses, health visitors and school nurses has held back primary care over the past decade, RCGP chairman Professor Steve Field has said.
He branded practice nurse training ‘a disgrace’ as he gave evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Care and Public Health.
Debating the progress of Labour’s ten-year NHS Plan, published in 2000, Professor Field said primary care could have achieved much more if more effort had been made to improve skill mix.
‘We haven’t achieved what we could have done in that period. It’s mostly to do with recurrent workforce problems.
‘If we had made an effort to increase nurses’ training and their continued professional development, we could have done much more.’
Christine Hancock, former general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, added that the government was ‘obsessed with buildings, rather than real people who can make a difference’.
tom.ireland@haymarket.com
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