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Unsocial hour payments 'will probably go', warn nurses at RCN congress

Maura Buchanan issues warning when speaking at the RCN congress debate on 7-day care
Simon Browes

The government’s push for 7-day care in the NHS is likely to threaten unsocial hours payments for nurses.

That was the warning made by former RCN president Maura Buchanan during a matter for discussion at congress in Glasgow this week.

Nottingham branch member Simon Browes proposed the debate on the government’s policy on 7-day NHS services.

Strikes over hours and pay

Although nurses at congress reiterated that the NHS is already a 7-day operation, they acknowledged that health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s policy had led to a series of strikes by the British Medical Association (BMA) over weekend hours and pay.

Mr Browes described how the BMA chair Mark Porter had called the move ‘corrosive and unnecessary’ and added: ‘If we are asked to do more with less, then something has got to give.’

Responding Ms Buchanan said: ‘The government policy is to reduce what would be seen as unsocial hours. The payment for that is at risk and it will probably go.’

RCN forensic nursing forum chair Zeba Arif said she was ‘baffled’ by the government’s proposal and added: ‘Jeremy Hunt is being ridiculous. I collapsed on a Saturday and was taken to hospital where the standard of care I received was exemplary.’

More staff, more resources

RCN member Tom Murray said the government’s proposed policy changes ‘cannot be achieved without more staff and more resources; something I don’t believe they will provide’.

The Department of Health statement on 7-day care is: ‘Patients will get the same high quality, safe hospital care on a Saturday and Sunday as they do on a weekday.

‘This means having enough doctors available to assess and review patients, providing access to important diagnostic tests and ensuring that consultants are there to make timely clinical judgements.’

For more on the 7-day care debate click here

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