RCN responds to regulator’s report on Birmingham Children’s Hospital
Published: 24 March 2009
Responding to the Healthcare Commission report on Birmingham Children's Hospital, Dr. Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said:
"When Trust managers don't invest in experienced nurses, patient care suffers and that's what happened at Birmingham Children's Hospital. The RCN has been saying for years that high quality care requires enough highly skilled nurses to deliver it. The BCH management were not focused on recruiting and training nurses to provide quality care in one of only four specialist children's hospitals in the country. When you overwork and overburden staff in any profession, morale deteriorates and the quality of their work suffers. It is no different with healthcare staff and the stakes are incredibly high.
"It is deeply worrying that this specialist children's hospital had to send seventy children a month elsewhere for treatment because they didn't have the capacity to care for them.
"Blame lies at the door of management when hardworking and experienced nurses are leaving the hospital in droves because they don't feel they are being listened to. Nurses spend more time with patients than any other health professional and it's time this trust listened to their views. We want to work with the government to root out poor management practice and ensure that the views and experience of health professionals are central to every trust board decision."
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Notes to Editors
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Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses, healthcare assistants and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.