Nursing Times Awards winners visit Downing Street

The award winners were given a private tour of Number 10, including the cabinet room.

Some of the award winners were invited to take part in a debate around the cabinet table with the Prime Minister, health secretary Andy Burnham and health minister Ann Keen.

The Prime Minister joked that the nurses had “made better decisions than the cabinet”.

Addressing the award winners Gordon Brown thanked nurses for their efforts during the recent heavy snowfall and arctic temperatures. He said “Every family, including his, owed a debt to the nursing profession.”

Ann Keen, who attended the Nursing Times awards in November, said the Prime Minister was “privileged” to meet the winners and that the whole event made her feel very proud.

Salford nurses corner PM

Award winners Jane McKenzie, Claire Baldwin, Beverley Tabernacle and Ann Marie Hornsby from Salford Royal Foundation Trust won both the chief nursing officer’s award and the A&E award in November for their innovative work on ensuring appropriate support and protection for domestic violence victims.

They told Gordon Brown they were concerned the current A&E target of ensuring 98 per cent of patients were dealt with within four hours was too tight to ensure appropriate “safeguarding” of some patients. They told the prime minster the target should be relaxed to 95 per cent.

Mr Brown told them it was “clearly an issue that should be looked at”, and said he would ask health minster Ann Keen to investigate and report back to him.

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