The government has been accused of leaving the nursing profession out of important discussions concerning the recovery of the NHS.
In recent weeks it has been suggested that nurses have not been given a seat around top tables, despite being the largest workforce in the health service.
“It is once again disappointing to see the largest safety critical workforce absent”
Alison Leary
Today nurses took to social media to criticise the lack of nurses or allied health professionals on the Elective Recovery Taskforce, which was launched last year to assist the Department of Health and Social Care’s work in tackling the patient backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The group’s stated role is to inform the government’s understanding of current NHS and independent provider working practices and to help shape proposals for how the healthcare system can best reduce elective care waiting lists.
However, one nurse said on Twitter that the absence of nurses in these discussions was “undermining and undervaluing their expertise”.
They added: “Nurse leaders should always have a seat at the table. Partnership work and respect. It’s not too much to ask, is it?”
Another said: “It further demonstrates the lack of voice given to nurses and AHPs who would be integral to the planning, implementation and evaluation of these services.
“We need to amplify the value of nursing and AHP clinical leadership.”
Professor Alison Leary, nurse and professor of healthcare and workforce modelling at London South Bank University, told Nursing Times that not having nurses present at this meeting was “a missed opportunity”.
She said: “It is once again disappointing to see the largest safety critical workforce absent from yet another decision-making table.
“The profession has expertise and insight both strategically and operationally on the day-to-day provision of services, and may have the solutions.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are committed to listening to nurses’ invaluable views on use of the independent sector to reduce waiting times for patients.”
They told Nursing Times that the Elective Recovery Taskforce was launched “to unlock spare capacity in the independent sector” and membership “was considered in collaboration with the NHS”.
“We are working to engage with a wide range of stakeholders as part of the process including nurses,” they added.
A few weeks ago, nurses raised similar concerns about the apparent omission of their profession in key discussions about the future of the NHS, when the prime minister hosted the NHS Recovery Forum in Downing Street on 7 January.
Rishi Sunak posted photos of the meeting on Twitter and said: “Today I hosted the NHS Recovery Forum in Downing Street with clinical leaders, health experts and ministers.
“We are determined to ease pressure on the NHS, ensure better care for patients and deliver our promise to cut waiting lists.”
However, many nurses on social media expressed disappointment at the supposed absence of the profession in the discussions which related to workforce pressures and patient care.
Today I hosted the NHS Recovery Forum in Downing Street with clinical leaders, health experts and ministers.
We are determined to ease pressure on the NHS, ensure better care for patients and deliver our promise to cut waiting lists ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/0EeiukXRrl
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) January 7, 2023
One nurse said: “This is very deliberate, to ignore the largest safety critical profession and the elephant in the room of workforce is to determine that the NHS to fail. It’s no accident.”
Another nurse said: “Yet again the nursing profession has been completely undermined.”
Meanwhile, one nurse described the profession as “an essential part of the jigsaw [that] was missing”.
“That decision was also disrespectful to the largest single profession in the NHS,” they added.
When Nursing Times approached No.10 for confirmation of whether any nurses were invited, it did not confirm nor deny.
Instead it said that the forum included chief executives and clinical leaders from NHS organisations, local areas and councils from across the country, clinical experts from royal colleges and independent sector organisations working with health and social care services to deliver services for patients.
At the time, Professor Leary told Nursing Times: “It is hard to see how any kind of recovery is possible without nursing.
“Failing to draw on the knowledge of the system and its current issues that nurses have seems short sighted.”