NEWS
MATERNITY CARE REVIEW’S AIMS ARE NMC URGES STAFF TO SET OUT IN WAKE OF FURNESS REPORT ENGAGE EARLY WITH A national review of maternity care will look at the international evidence on safe and efficient models of care, including midwife-led units, NHS England has said. The remit of the review, which was included in the NHS Five Year Forward View published in October, was announced last week on the same day that a highly critical report into serious failings at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) was published. The report into the deaths of 11 babies and a mother between 2004 and 2013 at Furness General Hospital, run by UHMBT, uncovered a ‘lethal mix’ of failings. The investigating panel found 20 instances of ‘significant or major failures of care’. Its report said clinical competence was substandard, working relationships were ‘extremely poor’ and the response to adverse incidents was ‘grossly deficient’.
Midwives ‘colluded in concealing the truth’ and dubbed themselves ‘the musketeers’. Seven midwives are under investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Dr Bill Kirkup, who led the investigation, described the findings as ‘serious and shocking’. The trust has apologised unreservedly and said lessons would be learned.
‘MOST MOTHERS SAY THEY GET GREAT CARE, BUT WE KNOW WE CAN DO BETTER’ The maternity care review will consider how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies. NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: ‘Most mothers say they get great NHS maternity care, but equally we know we can do better in many places.’
THE FTP PROCESS
The Nursing and Midwifery Council, the RCN and Unison are calling on nurses and midwives to engage at an early stage in fitness to practise proceedings. NMC director of fitness to practise (FtP) Sarah Page estimates more than half of registrants do not respond when the regulator initially writes to them informing them they are under investigation, even though there are benefits of early engagement and representation. Early engagement by nurses and midwives with the FtP process can narrow the focus of an investigation and provide faster and less costly outcomes for both the regulator and registrant, said Ms Page. ‘We want to make sure only those cases that are most serious go on to a final hearing,’ she added. Read a joint letter from the NMC and other professional representative bodies on page 32
Pay deal acceptance signals end of long dispute Most nurses in England will receive a 1 per cent pay rise in April after unions voted to accept a pay deal offered by the government. At a meeting of the NHS staff council on Monday, unions including the RCN, Unison, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and GMB voted in favour of the offer, made by the government at the end of January – just days before a planned 12-hour strike. It signals the end of a long-running dispute that began in March last year when health secretary Jeremy Hunt ignored a recommendation by the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) that all staff should get a 1 per cent rise. Angry nurses and other NHS workers staged the first strikes in 32 years at the end of last year over Mr Hunt’s refusal
to reverse his decision on pay, and midwives walked out for the first time in the RCM’s history. Under the deal negotiated for 2015/16, nurses earning up to £56,504 will receive a 1 per cent rise, which will be paid for by freezing incremental progression for those staff earning more than £40,558. Unions balloted their members on the offer. Last week Unison members voted by 67 per cent in favour of the deal and RCM members were 93.9 per cent in favour. Unison head of health Christina McAnea said: ‘The industrial action has forced the government to negotiate with us and sent a warning that NHS workers will not sit back when their standard of living is attacked.’ Sixty per cent of RCN members also voted in favour of the offer last
week. However, 51 per cent of Unite members rejected it. NHS Employers chief executive Danny Mortimer said the difficult months were now at an end. ‘This will be a huge relief for many patients, staff and health services,’ he said. Unite national officer for health Barrie Brown said the RB had been sidelined by the government. ‘We expect the future government to provide the RB with a remit and a big scope for looking at pay.’ Mr Mortimer added: ‘Employers do understand the anxieties of staff and urgently want to discuss sustainable ways to move away from pay restraint. This end to industrial action means we are now in a position to start those crucial discussions. Any solution will need to support better, safer and more responsive services to patients and more efficient use of NHS resources.’
8 march 11 :: volfrom 29 no 28 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 20, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
MATERNITY CARE REVIEW’S AIMS ARE NMC URGES STAFF TO SET OUT IN WAKE OF FURNESS REPORT ENGAGE EARLY WITH A national review of maternity care will look at the international evidence on safe and efficient models of care, including midwife-led units, NHS England has said. The remit of the review, which was included in the NHS Five Year Forward View published in October, was announced last week on the same day that a highly critical report into serious failings at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) was published. The report into the deaths of 11 babies and a mother between 2004 and 2013 at Furness General Hospital, run by UHMBT, uncovered a ‘lethal mix’ of failings. The investigating panel found 20 instances of ‘significant or major failures of care’. Its report said clinical competence was substandard, working relationships were ‘extremely poor’ and the response to adverse incidents was ‘grossly deficient’.
Midwives ‘colluded in concealing the truth’ and dubbed themselves ‘the musketeers’. Seven midwives are under investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Dr Bill Kirkup, who led the investigation, described the findings as ‘serious and shocking’. The trust has apologised unreservedly and said lessons would be learned.
‘MOST MOTHERS SAY THEY GET GREAT CARE, BUT WE KNOW WE CAN DO BETTER’ The maternity care review will consider how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies. NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: ‘Most mothers say they get great NHS maternity care, but equally we know we can do better in many places.’
THE FTP PROCESS
The Nursing and Midwifery Council, the RCN and Unison are calling on nurses and midwives to engage at an early stage in fitness to practise proceedings. NMC director of fitness to practise (FtP) Sarah Page estimates more than half of registrants do not respond when the regulator initially writes to them informing them they are under investigation, even though there are benefits of early engagement and representation. Early engagement by nurses and midwives with the FtP process can narrow the focus of an investigation and provide faster and less costly outcomes for both the regulator and registrant, said Ms Page. ‘We want to make sure only those cases that are most serious go on to a final hearing,’ she added. Read a joint letter from the NMC and other professional representative bodies on page 32
Pay deal acceptance signals end of long dispute Most nurses in England will receive a 1 per cent pay rise in April after unions voted to accept a pay deal offered by the government. At a meeting of the NHS staff council on Monday, unions including the RCN, Unison, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and GMB voted in favour of the offer, made by the government at the end of January – just days before a planned 12-hour strike. It signals the end of a long-running dispute that began in March last year when health secretary Jeremy Hunt ignored a recommendation by the NHS Pay Review Body (RB) that all staff should get a 1 per cent rise. Angry nurses and other NHS workers staged the first strikes in 32 years at the end of last year over Mr Hunt’s refusal
to reverse his decision on pay, and midwives walked out for the first time in the RCM’s history. Under the deal negotiated for 2015/16, nurses earning up to £56,504 will receive a 1 per cent rise, which will be paid for by freezing incremental progression for those staff earning more than £40,558. Unions balloted their members on the offer. Last week Unison members voted by 67 per cent in favour of the deal and RCM members were 93.9 per cent in favour. Unison head of health Christina McAnea said: ‘The industrial action has forced the government to negotiate with us and sent a warning that NHS workers will not sit back when their standard of living is attacked.’ Sixty per cent of RCN members also voted in favour of the offer last
week. However, 51 per cent of Unite members rejected it. NHS Employers chief executive Danny Mortimer said the difficult months were now at an end. ‘This will be a huge relief for many patients, staff and health services,’ he said. Unite national officer for health Barrie Brown said the RB had been sidelined by the government. ‘We expect the future government to provide the RB with a remit and a big scope for looking at pay.’ Mr Mortimer added: ‘Employers do understand the anxieties of staff and urgently want to discuss sustainable ways to move away from pay restraint. This end to industrial action means we are now in a position to start those crucial discussions. Any solution will need to support better, safer and more responsive services to patients and more efficient use of NHS resources.’
8 march 11 :: volfrom 29 no 28 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 20, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
