All PCT boardrooms need nursing champions, says the RCN
Published: 09 April 2009
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today called on all NHS Primary Care Trusts in the West Midlands to ensure that they have an Executive Director of Nursing on their boards.
The RCN believes that all PCTs, which commission health services in their area, should have a full-time Executive Director of Nursing on their boards, with full attendance and voting rights, to champion nursing and patient care.
The head of the RCN, Dr Peter Carter, has written to three PCTs* in the West Midlands which are understood not to have an Executive Director of Nursing position with the level of status that the RCN wants to see attached to the role. The letter asks them to reconsider their position as a matter of urgency. One other PCT has been asked to clarify its position. There are 17 PCTs in the West Midlands in total.
Patricia Marquis, Director of the RCN in the West Midlands, said: "The RCN has undertaken what we believe to be the first ever survey of the governance structures of every Primary Care Trust in England.
"The survey shows that the majority of trusts in our region have demonstrated their commitment to listening to the voice of nursing at the top table and the overall picture in the West Midlands is positive compared to some other regions.
"Unfortunately, however, a minority of trusts have no Executive Director of Nursing post in their governance structure with equal powers to, say, the Director of Finance. It's not only nurses that find this worrying, patients would probably question it, too.
"Nurses are on the front line - the 'canaries in the coalmine' for if things start going wrong with patient care - and it is absolutely vital that their voices are heard at board level. In the context of the failings recently identified by the Healthcare Commission at Stafford Hospital, it is unacceptable that some PCTs risk disempowering the nursing profession.
"We are calling on the minority of trusts to follow the best practice of their counterparts elsewhere in the region by introducing an Executive Director of Nursing on to their boards."
In March 2009, the RCN undertook a survey of all PCTs in England to assess whether they had an Executive Director of Nursing on their board. Trusts were also assessed on whether the position (a) held full voting rights; (b) was full or part time; (c) required the holder to be currently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council to practise as a nurse.
*The PCTs in the West Midlands understood not to have an Executive Director of Nursing position on their board that meets in full the RCN's policy criteria are NHS Walsall, Sandwell PCT and Solihull Care Trust. In addition, Wolverhampton City PCT has been asked to clarify its governance arrangements.