Nurses’ vote of no confidence a further blow to Lansley
pharmafile | April 14, 2011 | News story | | Health and Social Care Bill, NHS reforms, Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Nurses has voted overwhelmingly against Andrew Lansley’s health reforms, as he receives a vote of no confidence from its members.
At their annual meeting in Liverpool, 96% of the 500 RCN delegates took the unprecedented decision to give the health secretary a vote of no confidence.
The nurses were particularly concerned about potential cuts to frontline staff, with a recent report from the anti-cuts website False Economy saying that over 50,000 jobs – which includes many doctors and nurses – are to be slashed from the NHS.
They are also concerned that the NHS is being slowly privatised and that changes have been put through without proper consultation.
This vote will have no legal bearing on Mr Lansley, but it is a symbol of the growing pressures on the health secretary.
It comes just one week after the government announced it would “pause, listen, reflect and improve” on the NHS reforms that have just passed through the committee stage in the House of Commons.
The Health and Social Care Bill will now be on hold for the next three months as the government performs its ‘listening exercise’ – but this week’s vote may not be what it was hoping to hear.
The Labour Opposition took this as an opportunity to further attack the government on its reform programme, with Labour leader Ed Miliband saying that the answer to a bad Bill was not to slow it down, ‘but to junk it’.
In a further blow to the government, Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb – Nick Clegg’s closest advisor – has threatened to resign unless significant changes are made to the reforms.
Ben Adams
Related Content
Hospitals on ‘brink of collapse’, warn doctors
Hospitals across the UK are struggling to cope with emergency admissions, and a doctors’ group …
Storm clouds gathering over the NHS, say its leaders
NHS managers are using their annual conference to criticise the government’s savings programmes. The government …
Risk register spells out NHS reform risks
A leaked document that assesses problems with the government’s reform of the NHS has been …
