Nursing Times
Ben Clover

Ben Clover is a Nursing Times and HSJ reporter. His focus for HSJ is on acute providers (Foundation Trusts and Trusts) and community services, while on Nursing Times Ben reports on infection control, long term conditions (including allergy, asthma, diabetes, dermatology and COPD) and district & community nursing.

Camera technology may be used to monitor hospital hand hygiene

16-May-2012
Hospitals are being offered trials of camera technology developed for slaughterhouses that would see nursing practice monitored remotely from centres in other countries.
NHS London reviewing plan to reduce number of student nursing places

15 May 2012
The largest funder of student nursing places in England has been asked to review its plans for nursing commissions after concerns from hospital trusts.
London NHS panel backs closing minister's local A&E

10-May-2012
A panel appointed to look at the options for downgrading a hospital in south west London has recommended closing health minister Paul Burstow’s local A&E and maternity department.
London trusts could cut 2,700 nursing posts, says report

18-Apr-2012
Exclusive: London hospitals could be run with 2,700 less nurses if they were more efficient, confidential research obtained by Nursing Times claims.
Exclusive: Trusts in London told they can slash nurse budgets by up to half

3 April 2012
Hospital trusts in London have been advised they can safely slash spending on nursing staff, in some cases by 50%, according to secret reports obtained by Nursing Times.
Patient safety pilot shows improved results

21-Mar-2012
A tool for measuring four key areas of nursing appears to increase the likelihood of older patients receiving “harm free” care, according to a report seen by Nursing Times.
Surgical site infections are the 'next HCAI challenge'

19-Mar-2012
Surgical site infections are the next infection control “challenge” facing the NHS, a leading nurse consultant has warned.
London hospitals make plans for the Olympics

14-Mar-2012
Hospitals in London are considering reorganising surgery timetables, changing shift patterns and moving delivery times to accommodate the Olympics this summer.
RCM attacks cord blood collection plan

21 February 2012
A foundation trust has seemingly backtracked on a scheme to offer mothers a private facility to collect blood from their baby’s umbilical cord.
Nurse director to sit on body leading FT push

14 February 2012
A nurse is to be appointed to the board of the body designed to boost standards at England’s most troubled trusts.
London hospitals told they could slash nursing bill by £421m

7 February 2012
London hospitals have been advised by management consultants they could save £421m over the next three years through a major shake-up of nurse productivity, Nursing Times has learnt.
Telehealth is not threat to district nurses, says QNI

31 January 2012
The Queen’s Nursing Institute has launched a new drive to encourage district nurses to make the best use of new communications technology such as telehealth systems.
University dropped from NHS London course provider list

23-Jan-2012
A major shake-up of nurse education in London has resulted in the University of West London being dropped from a list of the capital’s training providers.
Report finds too few health visitors in Croydon

18-Jan-2012
Health visitors in the south London borough face caseloads of nearly double recommeded levels.
Former nurse to take up new role with SHA

4-Jan-2012
Heather Lawrence OBE is to leave Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and start a new role supporting London’s NHS trusts in achieving foundation status.
Government to push out large-scale telehealth programme

10-Dec-2011
The government has announced plans to bring telehealth technology to three million people within five years, a move with potentially significant impact on community nurses.
Nurses to be represented on London GP group

9-Dec-2011
The regional body which represents London’s GPs has said it will admit nursing members for the first time.
Healthcare assistant regulation plans 'too weak'

14-Nov-2011
Plans for a voluntary system of registration for health care assistants have been attacked as being too weak to significantly improve patient safety.
Plan to map high-flyers' careers from pre-qualification to consultant level

7-Nov-2011
Nurses’ careers would be mapped out from pre-qualification through to staff nursing and consultant level, under a training programme planned by an alliance of hospitals and universities in London and the South East.
Kingston Hospital to look at ways to improve HCA morale

29-Sep-2011
Kingston Hospital Trust in south west London is to examine ways to improve morale and lower sickness absence in its healthcare assistant workforce, including increasing staffing ratios in favour of registered staff.
Huge fall in nurses dropping out of nursing courses

27 September 2011
There has been a dramatic fall in the number of student nurses dropping out of courses, figures obtained by Nursing Times show.
NMC overspent £2.7m legal fees

20 September 2011
An unexpected rise in fitness to practise referrals has caused the Nursing and Midwifery Council to overspend its budget for legal fees with six months of the financial year still to go.
Nursing courses face axe at London universities

6 September 2011
England’s biggest funder of adult nurse training has decided to cut places by nearly a quarter, leaving the future of some of the best known nursing courses in doubt.
MRSA infections at all-time low

4-Aug-2011
MRSA infections have reached a record low, Health Protection Agency data reveals.
'Opportunistic' transfer of thousands of community nurses is criticised

19-Jul-2011
A regulator has criticised trusts for the “opportunistic” takeover of community services, a process which sees thousands of nurses change employer.
Figures show large differences between trusts in pressure ulcer numbers

18-May-2011
Large differences in a key measure of nursing quality have been suggested by data from analysts, shared with Nursing Times and sister magazine HSJ.
London consortium commits to nurse on its board

6-Apr-2011
A pioneering GP consortium plans to give local practice nurses a vote to elect one of their number to a position on its board.
NMC to 'engage' nurses and midwives with new magazine

2-Mar-2011
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is launching a new magazine for registrants.
NHS post cutting tally reaches 1,926 in the capital

18-Feb-2011
Nearly 2,000 NHS posts are now believed to have been earmarked to disappear in London, following further revelations of cost-cutting plans last week.
St George's hospital 'to cut 500 posts'

17-Feb-2011
A large London teaching hospital has said it does not yet know where the axe will fall in response to union claims it is cutting posts.
More than 10% of nursing posts to be cut at hospital trust

4-Feb-2011
More than 250 nursing posts are to be axed by Barts and The London NHS Trust.
Deterioration in community patients routinely overlooked

25 January 2011
Deteriorating patients in the community routinely go unnoticed as information is not shared with community matrons, a study has suggested.
TV tapped to attract Bangladeshi staff

25 January 2011
Two trusts have sent staff onto a Bangladeshi TV station to attract more Bangladeshis to their nursing workforce.
Senior nurses to be asked how they are improving dementia care

12-Jan-2011
England’s top nurses are to be asked to explain what they are doing to improve hospital dementia care in their regions.
Nurses transferring to social enterprise keep NHS pension

11 January 2011
Nurses, midwives and health visitors at a primary care provider that became a social enterprise have won their bid to keep their NHS pensions.
Training blamed for Implanon failure

11 January 2011
Inadequate training could have caused contraceptive devices to be fitted incorrectly in women who later became pregnant, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare has said.
NMC considers opening register to healthcare assistants

14 December 2010
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is considering opening a new section of the nursing register for so called “associate nurses”.
CQC to trawl online networks to find complaints

6-Dec-2010
Comments left online about nurses and standards of care could soon be picked up by the Care Quality Commission with new software.
RCN says 27,000 posts are earmarked for cuts

12-Nov-2010
The Royal College of Nursing claims nearly 27,000 NHS job have been earmarked to be cut in the UK - including 18,000 in England - which it warns risks endangering patient care.
Court rules automatic barring of nurses 'unlawful'

10-Nov-2010
The Royal College of Nursing has won its judicial review against the barring scheme run by the Independent Safeguarding Authority.
Toilet practice offends dignity

9 November 2010
NHS organisations have complained about cleaning staff of the opposite gender entering single-sex toilets.
Trust hires extra nursing staff to climb out of financial black hole

9 November 2010
A hospital in financial difficulties has invested £3.2m in nursing to turn its fortunes around.
Endoscope 'disinfection failure' linked to nine NDM cases in UK

5-Nov-2010
Nine people were infected with bacteria carrying the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) enzyme after “disinfection failure” with a single endoscope camera at a UK hospital, a document obtained by Nursing Times reveals.
Dual acute and community role pilot

2 November 2010
Nurses are to work in both acute and community care settings, under a scheme to be launched by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust in London.
No 'dumbing down' for health visitor expansion, says Milton

26 October 2010
Health minister Anne Milton has insisted there will be no “dumbing down” in the training of the 4,200 extra health visitors the government plans to recruit.
Health visitors recruitment plan survives spending review

21-Oct-2010
Government plans to recruit 4,200 new health visitors have survived the spending review – but question marks remain over pay, training and the possible “dumbing down” of the role.
Botched referrals cost district nurses five hours each

19 October 2010
Each mismanaged referral to a district nurse wastes five hours of their time, according to initial findings from one of the country’s first major studies into community nursing productivity.
White paper shake-up: tension expected as NHS merger plans set out

12 October 2010
Tens of thousands of nurses working in primary care are to be transferred to hospital and mental health organisations within the next six months.
Hospitals to record E coli and MSSA next year

12 October 2010
Infection control teams will have to monitor two more types of healthcare associated infection, Andrew Lansley said last week.
Visibility of hospital cleaners affects perceptions of hygiene

5 October 2010
Staff personal hygiene, outsourced cleaning contracts and not knowing where to complain are factors the public considers when asked to rate hospital cleanliness, research has found.
Nurse-led projects most effective in cutting admissions

5 October 2010
Nurse led projects were among the most effective in preventing older peoples’ emergency hospital admissions, research reveals.
Long term illness focus halves emergency costs

5 October 2010
Refocusing district nursing teams on older people with more than one long term condition can cut emergency bed day costs in half, a new study shows.
Infection control nurses warned of mutant bacteria

28 September 2010
Infection control nurses have been warned about a little-known bacterial enzyme that causes resistance to antibiotics.
Converted toilets pose legionella infection hazard, HPA warns

28 September 2010
Hospital toilets that have been converted into store cupboards pose a legionella risk, the Health Protection Agency has warned.
Midwives attacked over swine flu jab

28 September 2010
Midwives have been accused of resisting the vaccination of pregnant women against the swine flu H1N1 virus.
Midwife workloads too high to be safe

23-Sep-2010
Midwives in some regions of England have workloads more than a third higher than hospital safety standards recommend, official figures have suggested.
NMC reviews public health nursing role

21 September 2010
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has announced a review of public health nursing.
NMC to monitor ‘systemic’ as well as individual failures

21 September 2010
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has agreed to develop a system to monitor “systemic failure” in trusts.
Wide disparities in midwife duties

21 September 2010
Midwives in some regions of England have workloads more than a third higher than hospital safety standards recommend, official figures suggest.
DH sets up hospital tap safety group

14 September 2010
The Department of Health has set up a working group to look at the safety of hospital taps following last week’s news a Gram negative bacteria had been found in sinks.
Immigration cap leaves trusts unable to hire staff

14 September 2010
The government’s immigration cap announced last month is creating problems for some acute hospitals.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria risk from hospital sinks

6-Sep-2010
The Department of Health has issued an alert warning that hospital wash basins have been identified as a source of gram negative bacteria.
Fear of victimisation stops nurses whistleblowing, says NMC research

10 August 2010
Nurses have asked the Nursing and Midwifery Council to spell out how whistleblowers will be protected from reprisals.
Nursing support for vulnerable mothers could be axed

4-Aug-2010
Family Nurse Partnerships could be scrapped next April after the Department of Health confirmed their funding would fall under the government spending review.
Nearly half of enterprises nurse led

3 August 2010
Nurses are at the forefront of the government’s push to make the NHS the “largest social enterprise sector in the world”.
Cut, blow-dry and health advice - new role for hairdressers mooted

3 August 2010
Nursing minister Anne Milton has suggested hairdressers could become a force in public health.
One in four nurses would strike as job fears increase

27 July 2010
Nurses have become so concerned about their job security and working conditions that more than a quarter say they would go on strike, Nursing Times’ largest ever survey has found.
Unison members are most likely to walk out

27 July 2010
Unison members would be the most likely to strike if they were unhappy with their working conditions, Nursing Times’ survey has revealed.
Large scale nurse strikes never seen

27 July 2010
Nurses have taken part in work to rule industrial action before but stopped short of all-out strikes.
Work to rule action will mean nurses withdraw their goodwill

27 July 2010
Working to rule is the most favoured method of industrial action among the 5,185 nurses and midwives who took part in Nursing Times’ exclusive survey.
Universities may close nursing courses, warn academics

20 July 2010
Increased local control of nurse education and training could lead to the closure of courses and have adverse effects on workforce planning, academics have warned.
Midwives at greatest risk of NHS negligence claims

13 July 2010
Midwives are more likely to be involved in clinical negligence cases than frontline staff working in other areas, the latest NHS research suggests.
Male nurses more likely to be sanctioned by NMC

6 July 2010
A male nurse or midwife is four times as likely as a female to be sanctioned by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, fitness to practise data shows.
Midwives need to cut travel time

6 July 2010
Community midwives spend the equivalent of two days a week on administration and travel, research for NHS managers shows.
Healthcare assistants take over bulk of bedside care

22 June 2010
A healthcare assistant does twice as much direct patient care on the wards as a nurse, a pioneering study shared exclusively with Nursing Times has found.
Unison calls for formal HCA registration

22 June 2010
Unison is calling for the formal registration of healthcare assistants and national minimum competencies.
HCAs drive up performance scores

22 June 2010
The close relationships healthcare assistants develop with patients are an opportunity for trusts to drive up their performance scores, researchers have found.
Major training barriers prevent HCA career progression

22 June 2010
Ambitious healthcare assistants are hampered by haphazard training and development across the country, a report shows.
Skills gap blamed for learning disability deaths

15 June 2010
Gaps in nurses’ knowledge often contribute to “all too common” deaths of patients with learning disabilities, the Royal College of Nursing has said.
Opiate death inquiry calls for stricter controls

15 June 2010
A probe into a prescribing scandal that left three patients dead has said the Department of Health should consider making doctors double check drug charts routinely..
Healthcare assistants lead in dementia care

8 June 2010
Healthcare assistants play an unacknowledged managerial role in the care of dementia patients, research has revealed.
Nurses to replace doctors in police stations

25 May 2010
A shake up of how healthcare is provided to prisoners in police stations will see nurses replace doctors.
Nurse training ignores emotional impact of last offices, say academics

18 May 2010
Academics have criticised the level of support student nurses get in the care of the dead, after Nursing Times revealed evidence suggesting over half of deceased hospital patients are not properly treated.
Last offices neglected in over half of hospital deaths

11 May 2010
A dearth of training and guidance means nurses are failing to follow “last offices”, the simple procedures for treating dead patients with dignity and respect, a Nursing Times investigation has found.
District nurse downgrading sparks fears for standards

11 May 2010
Nursing leaders have made clear their concern about the widespread downgrading of district nursing posts.
The Bournemouth Supremacy

30-Apr-2010
The sun came out for the nurses at this year’s RCN Congress in Bournemouth, so Beyond the Bedpan packed our bucket and spade and went to join them.
RCN considers 0% alcohol limit for driving

28-Apr-2010
The Royal College of Nursing council will consider whether to adopt a 0% alcohol limit for driving.
Cameron's absence 'not a slur on nurses'

27-Apr-2010
David Cameron is the only main party leader not to address delegates at this year’s Royal College of Nursing Congress, ahead of the general election.
Medical dramas raise patient expectations and increase litigation risk

27-Apr-2010
Medical dramas like Holby City increase the risk of litigation by raising patient expectations to unreachable levels, the Royal College of Nursing’s Congress heard.
Idea to dock pay during sick leave proves unpopular

27-Apr-2010
A discussion of docking pay for the first five days of sick-leave got an largely unfavourable reception from the Congress.
Nurses vote to challenge perception of 'gold-plated' pension

27-Apr-2010
Delegates at RCN Congress voted overwhelmingly yesterday to challenge the media over the term “gold-plated” pensions.
Be realistic about pay, RCN head tells nurses

26-Apr-2010
The head of the Royal College of Nursing has said nurses must be “realistic” about salary rises in the near future.
Brown pledges support for specialist nurses at RCN Congress

26-Apr-2010
Prime minster Gordon Brown has promised a bigger role for specialist nurses if Labour continue in government after the general election.

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Ben Clover