Press Association, October 13, 2010 Workers calling in sick should have to check in with nurses before taking the day off, under plans set out by the Tories. The party say about £138 million in savings could be made to the public purse through an average reduction of two sick days across the board. Some staff at councils have an average of almost three weeks off sick a year. Copyright © 2010 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

Richard Catton, The Press, September 27, 2010 Nurses at York Hospital are angry at the prospect of a new rota system which they say will make it impossible for them to organise childcare while they are at work. The electronic rostering system, which the hospital began implementing last year, is to be trialled for four weeks on a number of wards, though health bosses warn “some staff will need to be more flexible with their working patterns”. Nursing unions have questioned the move and said staff should have been consulted on the changes. ... York

Sutton Guardian, September 10, 2010 The chief executive of Saint Helier Hospital has called for a crackdown on nurses accessing Facebook at work after a complaint they have been ignoring patients because of it. Sam Jones told the hospital’s IT team to stop staff logging on to the social networking site after an allegation nurses were checking their profiles rather than helping vulnerable patients at meal times. The complaint was made to MP Tom Brake by one of his constituents. A spokesman for Epsom and Saint Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust confirmed Facebook had been blocked from trust computers for at least two years, but conceded staff may have found ways to get round the ban. © Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group

Sophie Borland, Daily Mail, July 7, 2010 Tens of thousands of NHS staff face the axe as part of devastating cuts, figures show. Despite the Government’s promise to protect frontline staff and services, union leaders warn that doctors and nurses will be targeted in the redundancies. Health trust managers admit patient care is being compromised as routine treatments such as ear, nose and throat surgery for children and varicose vein operations are slashed. A report from the Royal College of Nursing has identified at least 10,000 jobs under threat in just 100 NHS trusts. But the true scale of the cuts is likely to be far higher. ... 40,000

Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge will sack up to 170 nurses jobs as part of its cost cutting measures. Telegraph, June 28, 2010 Up to 500 jobs will be cut from the payroll over the next financial year in a recruitment freeze and a further 200 jobs will be lost over the following two years. The trust employs about 7,000 people and was told to find efficiency savings of £35-40 million over the next three years. Only 51 people have taken voluntary redundancy following a hospital-wide appeal in April, which saw the hospital record a £3.9 million annual deficit. ... Addenbrooke

BBC, June 27, 2010 A hospital in Cambridge is planning to axe 170 nursing jobs in a bid to find savings of up to £40m over the next three years. A report on cutbacks at Addenbrooke's Hospital is to be discussed early next month and a copy of the report has been given to Cambridgeshire County Council. Geoff Heathcock, chairman of the health and care scrutiny committee, said he was astonished at the scale of cuts. His committee is to ask Addenbrooke's managers to explain their policy. Mr Heathcock believes up to 500 jobs could be cut over the next financial year in a recruitment freeze. ... Cambridge

Nurse-led innovations and NHS waste are to be highlighted in an RCN campaign to be launched shortly. Jenna Rattue, Healthcare Republic, June 25, 2010 Detail of the Frontline First campaign was revealed by Dr Peter Carter, the RCN’s chief executive and general secretary, in a response to the letter from David Cameron and Nick Clegg about public sector workers. The letter gives thanks to those that work within the public sector and asks them to help them find savings so public spending can be cut in a fair and responsible way. Dr Carter said that the biggest challenge in the NHS is to ‘make savings while maintaining and improving standards of care’. ... Nurse-led

Personnel Today, June 24, 2010 The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has asked for an urgent meeting with the government to discuss the two-year pay freeze for public sector workers announced in the Budget earlier this week. The RCN said that agreeing a pay-freeze two years in advance was "short-sighted". It also said that nurses could help managers identify areas for savings. Josie Irwin, head of employment relations at the RCN, said the health service could make substantial savings by spending less on management consultants and by avoiding "silly" initiatives, such as re-branding hospitals. ... Nurses

Nurses' unions have warned that a two-year pay freeze in the public sector is too long and must not be allowed to affect patient care. Rebecca Smith, Telegraph, June 24, 2010 The Royal College of Nursing have called for an urgent meeting with the government over the two-year pay freeze, saying it is 'short-sighted'. Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the union said it was 'short-sighted to talk as far in advance as two years'. He said: "There is plenty of scope for efficiencies to be made in the NHS – nurses are ideally placed to identify ways in which these savings can be made while maintaining high quality care." ... Nurses

StaffNurse.com, June 23, 2010 Health unions have reacted in dismay to the imposition of a two year pay freeze on the public sector. The freeze will apply to all staff earning more than £21,000 a year. Chancellor George Osborne is hoping the freeze will contribute millions of pounds to cutting the deficit, helping the NHS, councils and central government to balance its books. Workers earning less than £21,000 a year will be allowed flat rate pay rises of £250 a year. The decision overrides existing arrangements for public sector pay. Jon Skewes, of the Royal College of Midwives, said: "Midwives will be deeply concerned about the pay freeze, which is effectively a pay cut. ... Pay

Kiran Stacey & Chris Tighe, Financial Times, June 23, 2010 Shirley Jobbins’ professional life has changed hugely in the last decade. Having trained as a health visitor, she became a community matron as part of a push by the last government to provide better palliative care to people with long-term diseases. She now works for the Oscott Clinic, a surgery in one of Birmingham’s less glamorous areas. She loves her job, and recognises how much she has benefited from the extra funding pumped into the National Health Service since 1997. What is more, Mrs Jobbins thinks her role can grow even in a time of austerity. ... Nurse

They may have 'ringfenced' the NHS, but that doesn't mean we won't suffer. What have we done to deserve these attacks? James Anthony, Guardian, June 22, 2010 What David Cameron said at the beginning of the month is true: spending cuts will change everyone's way of life. You would expect me, as someone paid by the taxpayer, to speak out against spending cuts. Of course, I think about how spending cuts will affect my life. As a nurse, I hope that my job remains fairly secure. Student nurses will be struggling to find work in the face of hiring freezes. Many will be lost from the profession forever, with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of training thrown away with them. ... Nurses

Gordon Brown's speech at the nurses' conference earns him a standing ovation – and mass nausea. Simon Hoggart, The Guardian, April 27, 2010 The nurses Gordon Brown was addressing must have felt as if they were being hosed down with maple syrup. And added treacle. I know the prime minister needs every vote he can get, and he seems to be aiming to win them with a combination of flattery, praise, acclamation, eulogy and thick whipped cream. He was at the Royal College of Nursing annual congress in Bournemouth, addressing the most wonderful people in the known universe. He started slowly ... Nurses

BBC News, April 27, 2010 Nurses should be given more say in how the NHS is run, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said. He told the Royal College of Nursing conference in Bournemouth he wanted "to change the way power flows in the NHS". He said it was "only the skills, innovation and ideas" of nurses that could protect the NHS from cuts. Gordon Brown told the RCN on Monday that nurses were "the soul of the NHS". David Cameron has also said the health service is his top priority. ... More

Charlotte Santry, Nursing Times, April 20, 2010 The salaries of senior NHS managers have “accelerated away” from those paid to staff, with the average hospital nursing director now earning nearly £100,000, according to latest figures. While female nurses are paid 64.7 per cent and male nurses 62.2 per cent more than in 2007, foundation trust chief executives’ pay has risen by 115.2 per cent. The Incomes Data Services pay report 2010, which contains the figures, says they demonstrate how trust director earnings “continue to run ahead of the rest of the workforce”. ... Managers