RECRUITMENT
Care homes call for more nurses More midwives – but more babies too underinvestment,
English care homes are struggling to meet their residents’ needs, according to new research by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Nursing accounts for around three-quarters of the care provided in care homes, including tasks from washing and feeding to dementia care and using heart monitors.
An online poll of 600 nurses found that there were three key problems highlighted: lack of equipment, lack of staff and adequate training. The ageing population also means that patient care becomes more complex.
Of those polled, 38% reported that there were too few nurses to
provide effective care and
25% suggested that there was not enough equipment. Training was also considered important to providing care for residents.
RCN general secretary Dr Peter Carter (pictured) said: “Many of these challenges are not new, but following years of
New CAMHS consultant appointed for Pennine Care disorders and depression.
Bury is set to improve its CAMHS inpatient service, with the appointment of new consultant Dr Alison Wood.
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Horizon Unit provides enhanced care and treatment to adolescents with complex mental health problems, including eating
The unit focuses on rehabilitation and provides extended assessment and treatment for young people, as part of the Government’s CAMHS programme. It also complements the services provided at the Hope Unit, which is an acute assessment and treatment unit for adolescents and is located on the same site.
Dr Wood joins the trust from Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and has 17 years experience at consultant level within CAMHS services, working in tier 4 settings since 2002.
She said: “I hope to enhance this service by bringing my expertise in adolescent eating disorders and depression to enable a timely discharge from inpatient care or to prevent acute admission. I will also be exploring the management of emerging personality disorder within inpatients,
developing
therapeutic programmes and research opportunities.”
74 | national health executive Mar/Apr 12
RCM deputy general secretary Louise Silverton
said: “If births
are rising faster than midwife numbers then, regardless of this rise, the shortage of midwives will be getting worse, not better.
“If the number of midwives is rising faster than births then that’ll be
these issues have now significantly worsened.”
Care services minister Paul Burstow said: “The white paper will bring clarity to what quality care in social care looks like. It will seek to empower everyone in- volved in social care to play their part in ensuring high quality care for all.”
There are “more midwives working in the NHS than ever before”, according to provisional figures released by the Conservative Party.
The figures suggest there are now 21,028 midwives in England, up 4.4% and the highest absolute number since the statistics began to be collected in 1995.
Critics – including the Royal College of Midwives – note that because of the increasing birth rate, the number of babies born per midwife has barely changed, and that the increase is still far less than David Cameron promised before the election: 3,000 more midwives for England.
good news, but the Government shouldn’t be counting its chickens before they are hatched – there’s already a big shortage of midwives to make up. Nationally, we are campaigning for 5,000 more midwives and are aggressively promoting our e-petition.”
Health minister Simon Burns (pictured) said: “It makes a huge difference to patients that there are now more midwives working in the NHS than ever before.”
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