Harry Cohen
THE NHS IN WARRINGTON
Last Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to visit the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care at Warrington Hospital. It was a great opportunity to chat to some of the students who were leaving and who will soon be working full-time in our hospitals as well as some who have just started their course. I was very impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of the students and was glad that many of them will be staying to work at Warrington Hospital.
When this government took office it made clear its commitment to training more nurses and doctors to staff the NHS. It takes time to do that but the investment is now beginning to bear fruit. In our health authority alone, there are now over five thousand more nurses than there were in 1997 and those who I met know that the profession offers them a good and worthwhile career.
Of course, it is not just doctors and nurses we need in the health service. All hospitals need a full health care team to provide the services patients want and everyone has a part to play. That is why one of the first issues I took up in Parliament was the role of health care assistants and I’m pleased to say that the government has recognized the work they do and the skills they have to offer by letting them take on a wider role and allowing some to be seconded to train as nurses. After all, many of them have years of experience, which can be put to good use.
I also campaigned for a registration scheme for Operating Department Practitioners, a scheme that their own association wanted. I am pleased to say that the NHS now operates such a scheme.
Of course, there are a whole host of other professions inside the NHS which often don’t get a mention - physiotherapists, speech therapists, radiographers and so on. I was pleased that when the health minister Steve Ladyman visited the stroke unit at Warrington Hospital earlier in the year he was able to chat to the physiotherapists to hear their view on what is happening.
We need to recognize the work of all these people and to make more progress towards providing them with better pay and a proper career structure but we’ve come a long way in the past seven years and despite what some would tell us the NHS does a magnificent job for the majority of people. The students I met certainly recognized the opportunities available to them in the NHS and I am sure they will do an excellent job.
You can contact Helen Jones MP in the following ways:
- by letter to Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington, WA2 7JQ or House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA
- by telephone on 01925 232 480
- by fax on 01925 232 239
- by e-mail at jonesh@parliament.uk
