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The Government have said they need to 'pause' and 'listen' ... to the people and the professionals involved in the NHS .... and the RCN have made their voice heard very clearly today ... delivering an almost unanimous vote of no-confidence in the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and his management of NHS reforms!
... and rather than address the RCN conference today, Andrew Lansley elected to meet a small group of nurses from around the UK instead - a decision that caused anger amongst delegates at the conference.
Peter Carter, the general secretary of the RCN, added: 'I hope the health secretary goes away and thinks about what we have said to him. If there aren't changes there will be a hardening of opposition.'
Ed Miliband warned that the plans would put hospitals at risk and lead to staff losing the power to do what they believed was best for patients. He also dismissed the Government's 'listening exercise' as no more than a 'PR stunt', adding that 'they appear to believe that people don't like this bill because the Government hasn't properly explained it ... but the opposite is true ... the more people understand and hear about these proposals the less they like them!'
'It's not a problem of public relations - it's a problem of principle' and added 'The answer to a bad bill is not to slow it down, but to junk it'.
