Labour Party conference, Bournmouth
This year at the Labour Party conference was exciting due to the mounting speculation of an early autumn election. It was also a very successful conference with a busy round of meetings and fringe events and with three government announcements on issues that the RCN has been campaign on.
Sunday 23 September
On arrival at Bournemouth there will little time before the first meeting with Stephen Hesford MP, a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Primary Care and Public Health, to go through a range of issues from our members continued anger over pay, to the future of health and social care.
Monday 24 September
In Gordon Brown’s first speech as Prime Minister he announced the increase in the number of modern matrons and a package of measures to tackle health care acquired infections.
Following the speech Peter and Maura set off to a fringe event entitled 'Access all areas: how can we tackle health inequalities?' Alan Johnson was speaking at this event. Maura asked him a question on workforce and the need to ensure that the workforce is properly resourced and to deliver the government objectives noting that nurses have a pivotal role to play. Johnson said that he recognised this and there would be more in his speech tomorrow.
Later both Peter and Maura had the opportunity to discuss a range of issues centred on the future of health and social care hosted by the Healthcare Commission.
Tuesday 25 September
Following the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday it was the turn of Alan Johnson MP, Health Secretary. He announced a £97 million boost to the NHS security budget with lone workers to be equipped with alarms, better security in hospitals, training and an increase in the of prosecutions against those who assault staff. A couple of months earlier the RCN wrote to Ann Keen MP the minister responsible for this very issue. He also indicated that there would be more specialist nurses and health visitors to tackle public health issues.
Dr. Peter Carter, General Secretary and Maura Buchanan, RCN President sat in the audience listening to these announcements knowing that we must now make sure government delivers.
After Alan Johnson, Lord Darzi gave a presentation on the NHS review that he was overseeing that is due to report at the beginning of October. This was followed by a question and answer session between the health ministers and Labour Party delegates. The first question was on pay and the continued unrest about the pay settlement which brought cheers from the floor of conference. Other delegates raised their experiences of the health service on the ground.
At lunchtime Peter spoke at a fringe event alongside Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister for Public Health, in answer to the question, ‘Can the NHS make people live healthier lifestyles?’. Peter believed the answer was a resounding no, it couldn’t but it could provide information and intervene in a number of ways; nurses, including school nurses and health visitors were central to this. He suggested that there should be an annual health check up in schools. Dr David Haslam, National Obesity Forum and Joe Korner from the Stroke Association also spoke at the event.
Peter then met with Dr Howard Stoate MP an influential member of the important Health Select Committee to set out the RCN views on pay, deficits and NHS reform.
Next up Peter spoke at fringe event on ‘Who should have most say on the NHS – patients, politicians or staff?’. The event was attended by almost 150 delegates. He spoke alongside Ben Bradshaw, Minister of State for Health, Neal Lawson, Chair of Compass and Geoff Mulgan, Director of The Young Foundation. Peter wanted to see local Overview and Scrutiny Committees supported.
It was a whirlwind Tuesday with Lindsey Hayes, RCN Public Health Adviser, stepping in to speak at a fringe event on ‘Keeping health people healthy: preventative care and the public health agenda’.
Next stop the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool.