Health: Care and Compassion?

Baroness Emerton Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I am sure the whole House will recognise the contribution that my noble friend has made to raising awareness of these very troubling issues, and I pay tribute to her. She is right, which is why our proposals for the NHS place a great deal of emphasis on strengthening accountability at every link in the chain, so that the complaints that she has referred to are dealt with speedily and someone is held accountable for what has happened.

[Baroness Emerton]

My Lords, will the Minister please say whether it is the Government’s intention to respond to the previous Prime Minister’s commission on nursing, which reported in March 2010? There were 21 commissioners, and I declare an interest as one of them. The report made 20 recommendations, 17 of which relate directly to the ombudsman’s report and, if implemented, would go some way to curing some of the types of incidents that were reported. There is a great need on the part of both the employers and the employees, and it was good to hear the Minister say that a letter has gone to the employers. Would it be possible to have an answer to the commission so that we could see the implementation of some of these recommendations? I am ashamed to be named a nurse when such dreadful care and lack of supervision have been identified. We have a responsibility here. I ask the Minister to look at the supervision of untrained staff and the regulation of assistant nurses.