Nursing Times 2008: The year in review

16 December, 2008

Nursing Times looks back over the big – and some of the smaller – events and outcomes of 2008

January

Nurses at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital were praised for their actions after fire swept through the top floor of the world-famous cancer hospital on 2 January. All 350 staff and patients – two of whom were in surgery at the time – had to be evacuated to the nearby Royal Brompton.

What happened next: The hospital reopened its doors on 7 January but rebuilding work looks unlikely to be completed until well into 2009. Fire investigators are yet to publish their report into the cause of the blaze. At present, some patients are still being treated at a mobile unit in Surrey.

Nursing Times launched Time Out for Training – a six-month campaign calling on the government, SHAs and trusts to ringfence time and funding for nurse post-registration training following several years of budget raiding and underspending.

What happened next: By the end of one of the most successful campaigns in Nursing Times’ history, seven out of ten SHAs had committed to spending their entire training budgets on training in future and the government said that trusts would be measured on ‘access, quality and expenditure’ on post-registration training, the results of which would be made public.
The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence published guidance warning nurses against having sexual relationships with patients and former patients, even if the professional relationship had ended a long time previously.

What happened next: A Nursing Times survey of 3,650 nurses revealed that 9% of them thought that, in some cases, love could justify starting a relationship with a current patient. In addition, 5% of respondents said they had been in a sexual relationship with a former patient, with more than one-third of these going on to marry or live with that person.
The Productive Ward programme was launched by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. This involves frontline staff introducing measures to improve productivity and free up time for patient care.

What happened next: The scheme was a runaway success and has been rolled out across most NHS acute settings. There are plans to extend the model to the community.

February

Student nurses in London were at the centre of a row over pre-registration training standards, when Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust said it would cease to provide Thames Valley University with placements because of concerns about quality.

What happened next: The trust says that the situation is unchanged but, as Nursing Times went to press, developments were expected.
Nurses sail across the Atlantic
Nurses at the Manchester hospital where the NHS began found their jobs in danger. Trafford General Hospital, known as Park Hospital when it admitted the first NHS patients in 1948, announced plans to cut 210 posts and close two wards in a bid to save £7m.

What happened next: The two wards were closed and 170 posts were shed through natural wastage but there have been no ‘compulsory redundancies’.

March

The Welsh Assembly said that it would start phasing out hospital car parking charges for all nurses, staff and visitors from 1 April. Private parking contracts would be allowed to elapse so that nurses at just four of the country’s 130 hospitals would have to pay to park at work by 2011.

What happened next: The Scottish Government said it would be doing the same from September, while Northern Ireland said in May that cancer patients and those receiving renal dialysis were to be exempt from hospital parking fees.
Nursing Times revealed that ministers planned to close a specialist psychiatric hospital, regardless of the outcome of a public consultation on its future. A letter seen by Nursing Times revealed that former health minister Ivan Lewis had told a local MP that there was ‘no high quality evidence’ to support the continuing existence of Henderson Hospital in Sutton and that its services were to be merged with the Cassel Hospital’s in Richmond – even though the consultation on the Henderson’s future was not due to begin until May.

What happened next: The Henderson ‘temporarily’ closed its doors at the end of May despite the efforts of nursing staff and other campaigners to keep it open.
Claims of bullying at the NMC
Conservative peer Lord Mancroft was roundly criticised after branding nurses at the Royal United Hospital in Bath as ‘grubby, drunken and promiscuous’ during a parliamentary debate.

What happened next: Lord Mancroft has never apologised for his comments, despite the controversy. In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said: ‘Those nurses behaved like that only because of a lack of leadership in that hospital.’
Former staff nurse Colin Norris was jailed for life for the murder of four patients at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust between May and December 2002. The high-profile case, which sparked ‘Angel of Death’ headlines, brought back unwanted memories for the profession of Beverly Allitt.

What happened next: Norris is serving a minimum of 30 years in Durham prison but has yet to be struck off the nursing register.
Angela Bartlett was appointed as the UK’s first cardiometabolic nurse specialist by University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. She works with patients at risk of cardiovascular risk such as those with obesity problems.
Swiss researchers cast doubt on the value of universal MRSA screening for inpatients, after finding it had little effect on infection rates in an 18-month study of 20,000 surgical patients.

What happened next: The Department of Health is pushing ahead with plans to screen all elective patients for MRSA by the end of March 2009 and all emergency admissions ‘as soon as practicable’ within the next three years.

April

Negotiators from the government and the nursing unions unveiled a multi-year pay deal for nurses worth just under 8% over three years, with headline rises of 2.75%, 2.4% and 2.25%. The offer followed a 2.75% recommendation for 2008–2009 from the NHS pay review body.

What happened next: Members of Unison and the RCN voted to accept the offer in June. However, the two organisations were soon trying to persuade the pay review body that it should recommend the government return to the negotiating table with an improved offer due to rising inflation – with seemingly little confidence of success. A third union, Unite, representing health visitors, took more drastic action when its members worked to rule for one day in December in a bid to force the government to reconsider. The union plans further industrial action in January.
An RCN survey revealed that specialist nurses remained at risk from post cuts and downgrading of their jobs, despite a turnaround in NHS finances. More than 30% reported vacancy freezes and 20% felt they were at risk of redundancy.

What happened next: The Department of Health issued guidance on long-term neurological conditions which included a section on specialist nurses. It said commissioners should use this as a template in other settings in which specialist nurses could be used.
A resolution was passed at RCN Congress in Bournemouth calling for a rethink of the college’s constitutional policy on industrial action – known as Rule 12 – to make it easier for members to go on strike.

What happened next: The college made good on its pledge three months later and called for members’ views on whether the rule should be relaxed to potentially allow official RCN strike action. The views gathered will be discussed in the new year and a report submitted to congress in May.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson was asked by BJ Waltho of the RCN’s East Dorset Branch what he would give nurses for the 60th anniversary of the NHS.

What happened next: Mr Johnson presented Ms Waltho with a birthday cake on the anniversary.
The NMC finally launched its new code of conduct after four years in the making.
Sunderland Teaching PCT was rated the best place to work by Nursing Times readers in the 2008 NT Top 100.

May

The NMC admitted that it could be forced to run a £400,000 election for new council members who would stand for only a few months before being replaced by a new council of appointed members. The problem hinged on whether an amendment to the Nursing and Midwifery order got through parliament before the June recess.

What happened next: The privy council passed the legal amendment in time, so the pointless election was scrapped.
After a measles outbreak in east London, the Health Protection Agency told trusts to offer MMR doses closer together than usual.

What happened next: Some 1,049 cases of measles were reported in England and Wales in the first nine months of 2008 – more than in the whole of 2007. Nurses in Cheshire were involved in a catch-up MMR campaign to immunise 10,534 children after 75 measles cases were reported.
The Healthcare Commission’s annual survey showed that 74% of inpatients ‘always’ had confidence in nurses.

June

Freedom of Information Act requests by Nursing Times, carried out as part of its Time Out for Training campaign, revealed that SHAs had skimmed more than £70m in training funds from 2007–2008 budgets while others had left a total of £30m earmarked for training unspent.

What happened next: Follow-up research in August by Nursing Times revealed that a further £61m earmarked for training had been diverted or underspent, meaning that a total of £165m had been raided from 2007–2008 training budgets.
The Department of Health announced that there were now 5,538 modern matrons working in the NHS in England – more than double the number the previous year. However, this has been slow progress since the role was first announced in the NHS Plan of 2000.
Health minister Ann Keen gave her public backing to the Time Out for Training campaign at a parliamentary briefing organised by Nursing Times.
Health secretary Alan Johnson announced that nurses were to be measured against new benchmarks or ‘metrics’ on quality of care, including compassion – reported in the newspapers as ratings for being ‘smiley’ – as a taster for the NHS Next Stage Review the following month.

What happened next: In November, the government asked nurses and other NHS staff to rate how useful a list of proposed indicators would be and suggest others. The consultation closed in December.
Chief nursing officer for England Christine Beasley was made a dame in the Queen’s annual birthday honours list.
Lord Darzi publishes the NHS next stage review

July/August

Nurses up and down the country celebrated the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
The Welsh Assembly announced that it was to give sisters and charge nurses powers over cleaning and care on their wards, a move sparked by a conversation between health minister for Wales Edwina Hart and Marie Williams, a sister at West Wales General Hospital.

What happened next: By the end of 2008, all sisters and charge nurses should have direct control over ward cleaning, a new dress code and uniform, and a mandatory training programme will be under way. Further elements should be in place by 2010. In England the RCN, with input from the Department of Health, is working on guidance to help sisters.
The government unveiled a draft of the NHS Constitution, setting out seven principles underlying the health service.

What happened next: The Queen told parliament in December that a new health bill would compel the NHS to comply with the final version of the constitution. In a Nursing Times survey, one-quarter of respondents considered the constitution
a waste of time.
The Department of Health published its end-of-life care strategy, featuring plans for fast-response nurse teams to enable more patients to die at home.
Dame Christine Beasley, the chief nursing officer for England, said there was ‘broad support’ for introducing structured clinical pathways in nurse post-registration training, following a consultation on the modernising nursing careers programme.
The RCN agreed to ban free alcohol at fringe discussion events at its 2009 congress, as heavy drinking was at odds with the college’s attempts to encourage healthy living among its members. General secretary Peter Carter denied the move was sparked by problems at the 2008 congress.

September

The national HPV vaccination programme started in schools, with the aim of protecting young women from cervical cancer.

What happened next: A Roman Catholic school in Manchester barred 12 and 13-year-old pupils from receiving the jab on its premises.
The NMC ratified proposals that will make nursing in England an all-graduate profession, bringing it in line with Scotland and Wales by 2015.

What happened next: The regulator is working out how to implement the historic change. However, a Unison survey of student nurses, published in September, suggested half had considered quitting their course because of financial difficulties – unlike diploma students, degree students do not currently receive bursaries.
Nursing Times launched a campaign calling for an end to car parking charges – ‘Free parking, clamp down on unfair charges for nurses’. It called on the governments of England and Northern Ireland to follow the examples set by Scotland and Wales and abolish car parking charges for nurses

What happened next: Nursing Times is continuing to name and shame trusts over parking charges and to lobby those
in power. Please help us ‘clamp down on charges’ by signing our online petition at the 10 Downing Street website.

October

Health secretary Alan Johnson praised NHS staff for hitting the government’s target of reducing MRSA cases by half since 2004.

What happened next: The Health Protection Agency warned in the same week that nurses should be vigilant of a new infection control threat – Panton-Valentine Leukocidin-positive Staphylococcus aureus.
A Nursing Times survey revealed that 90% of nurses wanted clearer guidance on providing care while not at work – so-called Samaritan acts – with 69% unsure whether they were covered under indemnity insurance in such situations.

What happened next: Two weeks later, the NMC issued an updated advice sheet on Samaritan acts.
Great Ormond Street became the second major London hospital in 12 months to catch fire. The blaze, which caused extensive damage to the fifth floor cardiac wing, was thought to have been started by an exploding oxygen cylinder.

November

Two pieces of research by the RCN and the Health Protection Agency revealed the continuing dangers of needlestick injuries to nurses.
The case of Baby P created difficult questions for social and health services in Haringey, both of which had numerous contacts with the vulnerable child before he died.

What happened next: The Healthcare Commission is to review every NHS trust in England to ensure they are meeting obligations on safeguarding children.
Gordon Brown makes a special appearance at the Nursing Times awards
A major investigation by Nursing Times revealed that the NHS had failed to substantially increase its community nursing workforce, nearly three years after the government first announced that it planned to do this.
David Foster, former director of nursing at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, was appointed deputy chief nursing officer
for England, following the departure of Janice Sigsworth.
The names of at least four registered nurses appeared on a leaked list of supposed members of the British National Party.