Health: Healthcare Assistants

Debate between Baroness Greengross and Baroness Thornton
Monday 24th October 2011

(13 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Greengross Portrait Baroness Greengross
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My Lords—

Baroness Thornton Portrait Baroness Thornton
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My Lords, I often take my lead from the noble Baroness, Lady Masham. In an article in the Times today she said that a voluntary register was no cure. This, taken with the confusion created by, I am afraid, the noble Earl’s remarks about struck-off nurses, underlines the point at issue. I ask the Minister: is it really satisfactory that there is a chance that no one would know that a nurse was a struck-off nurse? Is it satisfactory that thousands of nursing care assistants are taking blood and carrying out procedures, but patients cannot know whether they are on a register and properly regulated? That is the problem. The noble Earl needs to think about the kind of juggernaut that is heading towards him on this one.