Letters
We welcome all readers’ letters, but reserve the right to edit them or withhold names and addresses. Please email: [email protected]
Please keep letters to a maximum of 150 words, and include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number
Why does the nurse regulator need to build up a £10 million reserve? Jennifer Sprinks (Analysis March 26) writes that the Nursing and Midwifery Council wants to generate £10 million in reserves by January 2016. I find this outrageous. What is the rationale for building up such huge reserves? The regulator appears to be dysfunctional. Does the left hand know what the right is doing? It does not make sense for the NMC to be accumulating a great pot of money while pleading poverty and launching a consultation on imposing a £20 a year increase in registration fees on nurses. It was not that long ago that the fees were hiked from £76 to £100. If this latest proposal goes through, as seems likely, the registration fee will rise to £120 from next March. The fee is already unaffordable to most nurses. I see no justification for another increase. Bharti Chakravarthi, Bradford
NMC NEEDS TO CUT ITS CLOTH TO FIT ITS MEANS, NOT TAP UP OTHERS I am grateful to mental health liaison nurse Steve Iwasyk (Analysis March 26) for his comment on the proposal by the NMC to increase the nurse registration fee to £120. He writes: ‘When the NMC fee rose last year, it was too much. The fact they consulted nurses and had an overwhelming response against the rise and yet ignored it, is what concerns me. ‘It gives me no confidence they will listen to nurses if they consult again.’ Well, the NMC has now launched its consultation on increasing the registration fee from £100 to £120 from next March. I should imagine that few responses to the consultation will be in favour of the increase, but it will probably be steamrollered through regardless. Of the NMC’s total expenditure of 36 april 2 :: vol 28 no 31 :: 2014
£63.2 million in 2012/13, £48.6 million went into the ever-expanding black hole of fitness to practise proceedings. By comparison, a rather meagre £5.56 million was spent on maintenance of the register and £1.39 million on education. Rather than tapping nurses for yet more money, the NMC needs to find other sources of revenue to fund the enormous cost of fitness to practise proceedings. If that fails, it needs to cut its cloth according to its means.
This proposed increase of £20 a year on registration fees needs to be opposed. But let’s not get diverted from the main issue that needs to be addressed – nurses’ pay. It would be a pity if all our campaigning energies were to be put into combatting this £20 increase at the expense of our demands that the government pays nurses a decent wage.
Martha Straw, by email
MENTAL HEALTH STAFF KNOW HOW HARMFUL PRISON BOOKS BAN WILL BE Writing from Pakistan – a country where books being sold on pavements with scores of people browsing them is a common sight – I have to express my dismay at the directive from the Ministry of Justice banning books being sent to prisoners. How vindictive and judgemental this is, and to what end? From a nursing perspective, in forensic psychiatry I have observed again and again that books as a source of learning have led to a new beginning for countless individuals.
FEE INCREASE IS A MERE DISTRACTION FROM THE BIGGER PROBLEM OF PAY The NMC’s decision to press ahead with its consultation on increasing registration fees by 20 per cent is ill-timed and insensitive (News and Analysis March 26). The consultation has created a storm of protest in the press and on Twitter. Many commentators will no doubt be feeding into the consultation their opinion that such an increase is unnecessary and misguided.
Sandra Ann Williamson, by email
NURSING STANDARD
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 15, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
We welcome all readers’ letters, but reserve the right to edit them or withhold names and addresses. Please email: [email protected]
Please keep letters to a maximum of 150 words, and include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number
Why does the nurse regulator need to build up a £10 million reserve? Jennifer Sprinks (Analysis March 26) writes that the Nursing and Midwifery Council wants to generate £10 million in reserves by January 2016. I find this outrageous. What is the rationale for building up such huge reserves? The regulator appears to be dysfunctional. Does the left hand know what the right is doing? It does not make sense for the NMC to be accumulating a great pot of money while pleading poverty and launching a consultation on imposing a £20 a year increase in registration fees on nurses. It was not that long ago that the fees were hiked from £76 to £100. If this latest proposal goes through, as seems likely, the registration fee will rise to £120 from next March. The fee is already unaffordable to most nurses. I see no justification for another increase. Bharti Chakravarthi, Bradford
NMC NEEDS TO CUT ITS CLOTH TO FIT ITS MEANS, NOT TAP UP OTHERS I am grateful to mental health liaison nurse Steve Iwasyk (Analysis March 26) for his comment on the proposal by the NMC to increase the nurse registration fee to £120. He writes: ‘When the NMC fee rose last year, it was too much. The fact they consulted nurses and had an overwhelming response against the rise and yet ignored it, is what concerns me. ‘It gives me no confidence they will listen to nurses if they consult again.’ Well, the NMC has now launched its consultation on increasing the registration fee from £100 to £120 from next March. I should imagine that few responses to the consultation will be in favour of the increase, but it will probably be steamrollered through regardless. Of the NMC’s total expenditure of 36 april 2 :: vol 28 no 31 :: 2014
£63.2 million in 2012/13, £48.6 million went into the ever-expanding black hole of fitness to practise proceedings. By comparison, a rather meagre £5.56 million was spent on maintenance of the register and £1.39 million on education. Rather than tapping nurses for yet more money, the NMC needs to find other sources of revenue to fund the enormous cost of fitness to practise proceedings. If that fails, it needs to cut its cloth according to its means.
This proposed increase of £20 a year on registration fees needs to be opposed. But let’s not get diverted from the main issue that needs to be addressed – nurses’ pay. It would be a pity if all our campaigning energies were to be put into combatting this £20 increase at the expense of our demands that the government pays nurses a decent wage.
Martha Straw, by email
MENTAL HEALTH STAFF KNOW HOW HARMFUL PRISON BOOKS BAN WILL BE Writing from Pakistan – a country where books being sold on pavements with scores of people browsing them is a common sight – I have to express my dismay at the directive from the Ministry of Justice banning books being sent to prisoners. How vindictive and judgemental this is, and to what end? From a nursing perspective, in forensic psychiatry I have observed again and again that books as a source of learning have led to a new beginning for countless individuals.
FEE INCREASE IS A MERE DISTRACTION FROM THE BIGGER PROBLEM OF PAY The NMC’s decision to press ahead with its consultation on increasing registration fees by 20 per cent is ill-timed and insensitive (News and Analysis March 26). The consultation has created a storm of protest in the press and on Twitter. Many commentators will no doubt be feeding into the consultation their opinion that such an increase is unnecessary and misguided.
Sandra Ann Williamson, by email
NURSING STANDARD
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 15, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
