Health visitor crisis is ‘a national scandal’
- prime minister’s nursing commission told
19th August 2009
The dramatic fall in the number of health visitors since 2004 is
‘a national scandal’, Unite, the largest union in the country, has
said.
Unite, in its response to prime minister’s Commission on the
Future of Nursing and Midwifery, has called for ‘a new fast track
into health visiting’ to reverse the profession’s decline.
Unite is equally critical of the state of school nursing which
has fewer than 900 whole-time equivalent (WTE) qualified school
nurses employed by the NHS, and as a result many schools ‘rarely’
see a school nurse. One way to overcome this would be to encourage
more men to become school nurses, with the job role more clearly
defined.
Unite said the fall in new health visitor registrants from 717
in 2004 to 253 in 2008 should be seen as a national scandal.
Unite added that there been a nearly 13 per cent drop in WTE
health visitors since 1998, but the number of live births has
increased by 8.5 percent and the population of the UK by 4.6 per
cent during the same period.
Allowing this to happen has been a social experiment that will
have affected a whole generation of children’s lives.
Furthermore it will cost the total economy, from health
expenditure, criminal justice and unemployment, billions of pounds
in the future.
It is essential that the commission supports a new fast track
route into health visiting which reduces the requirement to spend
three years training as a nurse, when the ambition is to be a
health visitor. This would appeal to mature entrants, and to those
with degrees in subjects, such as psychology and life
sciences.
Unite urged the commission to recommend that ‘health visiting’
is once again legally defined in statute, as it was between 1909
and 2004. This would stop less qualified health professionals doing
the ‘health visitor’ job and strengthen the public’s confidence in
the profession.
The fact that Unite, the third largest NHS union, which embraces
the Community Practitioner’ and Health Visitors’ Association, was
not represented on the commission was described as
‘unfortunate’.
Unite lead professional officer for policy and external affairs,
Obi Amadi, said: "The picture is bleak. However, we have put
forward a number of positive recommendations that would revitalise
the health visiting and school nurse professions, at a time when
the public is rightly concerned about child protection issues in
the aftermath of the tragic case of Baby P."
ENDS
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS:
For a copy of the full consultation, please contact: Shaun
Noble, communications officer (health sector), 020 7420 8951 or
07768 693 940
For further information, please ring: Obi Amadi, lead
professional officer, policy & external affairs 07780 955
936
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