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NEWS RELEASE FROM THE
REGISTERED NURSING HOME ASSOCIATION
Issued 19th August 2002
RNHA WELCOMES GOVERNMENT’S NEW
‘WAVE OF REALISM’ ON CARE STANDARDS
The Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA) today welcomed what it called ‘the wave of realism that has now swept over the Government in its approach to care standards in the nursing home sector’.
Responding to Health Secretary Alan Milburn’s new consultation document on the implementation of care standards, RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell said there appeared to have been a major turn around in Government thinking.
He said: “It looks as though the Government has at last realised that trying to apply inflexible rules about the physical environment of existing nursing homes, such as room and door sizes, was having an extremely negative effect. Instead of raising standards of care, it was simply driving many existing homes out of business and putting further pressure on the system, to the detriment of patients.”
He added: “When the Government first mooted the idea of care standards, we supported the concept in principle but warned them against a rigid regime which makes important those things which can be measured rather than measuring those things which are truly important. Standards of care should focus on outcomes for patients, not on processes. We are pleased to see that the Government has undergone a conversion, albeit late in the day, towards our originally held position.”
The RNHA will be responding formally to the Government’s latest consultation on care standards. In the meantime, it points with some sadness to the fact that many nursing homes throughout the country have already closed their doors for good because they could not afford the physical changes which the original care standards appeared to make obligatory.
“Those homes have gone,” said Mr Ursell. “What we must now ensure that is that no more perfectly good homes should fall by the wayside because of bureaucratic regulation that is not actually about the most important thing of all - the care provided to patients.”
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For further information and comment please contact:
Frank Ursell, Chief Executive Officer, Registered Nursing Home Association
Tel: 0121-454 2511 or 07785 227000 mobile
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