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| Minister urged to stop health visiting being legally abolished - 03/19/2008 |
Unite calls on Health Secretary to halt legal changes to the Nursing and Midwifery Act
Health Secretary, Alan Johnston has been urged to intervene to halt plans that could lead to the legal abolition of the 146-year old health visiting profession.
Such a move will hit families and communities, as in future healthcare professionals carrying out health visiting duties, may not be qualified up to that standard.
Now Unite/Community Practitioners¡¦ and Health Visitors¡¦ Association is asking for a urgent meeting with Mr Johnson to strengthen the legal status of health visiting which was first in force at the beginning of the last century.
Unite/CPHVA Acting Lead Professional Officer, Cheryll Adams said: "Without the legal status of health visiting being protected, the door will be opened further for other less-qualified staff to take on these responsibilities. Since it was taken out of statute we have already seen a dramatic fall in health visitor numbers."
"This could mean that even more mothers with postnatal depression won't receive the support they deserve, families won't be helped through periods of crises and more children could become victims of family dysfunction."
Unite/CPHVA predict that the complex regulatory changes proposed by government regulatory advisors will lead to the third part of the Nursing and Midwifery register the part for specialist community public health nursing (SCPHN) closing and with it a loss of recognition of the unique characteristics of public health practice. The other two parts cover nurses and midwives.
Cheryll Adams said: "This is not an arcane legal dispute, but one that will have a real impact on the public health of the UK population."
"According to the NHS's own workforce statistics, a health visitor job-a-day is being lost, but at the same time ministers have re-energised their family-friendly policies which need a full complement of health visitors for them to be implemented in homes, surgeries and clinics across the land."
"The result of this contradictory equation is that health visiting is at a critical crossroads in its history." |
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