Tuesday - February 08, 2011

A MATTER OF SOVEREIGNTY AND MEDICAL SAFETY

I have myself come into contact with doctors (not a lot) who I have had to ask to repeat themselves.  Doesn’t happen often but when it does, I’m always left wondering, do they understand me? Do they know what I’m trying to describe? It’s just a feeling sometimes of confidence as in, Lack Of!

This article in the Mail today hasn’t made me feel any more confident I can tell ya.

To be fair, the nurses I have come into contact with on the odd occasion, were highly competent and professional and kindly. I found that in Winchester as well as Southampton.  Which does not make this article any the less scary.

I thought it should be shared as much for the issue of sovereignty as for medical safety. I bang on a lot, on the issue of ‘sovereignty,’ but find I can’t help myself because of what I have seen here over the last 6 and more years.  Keep in mind please that I remember an England that did not have to answer to foreign powers or blocks in the way they do now.  Another example of that is the vote for prisoners.  The European Court of Human Rights has ruled and EU members must follow.
There’s a huge fight going on as I write this on that subject.  If this country refuses the edict, they will face millions in legal action. It’s a mess folks and I know of few here who like the idea.  Well, except for one writer in today’s Telegraph who thinks refusing the vote to prisoners undermines Democracy. Oh really? Then why has it done so well (mostly) over all these years?  And here’s an interesting aside.  It won’t be the EU or their courts that will lose monies.  It’ll be the Brit taxpayer if things go haywire.  Who else?

So naturally me being me, I transfer what I see and read here, to my own country thinking that anything is possible. And it most assuredly is. There’s many a rough and tumble Brit who never dreamed his country would be thus in 2011.  If you could time travel and meet Churchill and tell him what’s happened to his country, he’d think you utterly mad or drunk or both. It would be beyond his imagining.  As an American, I’m inclined that way. In my country? Not a chance of losing our sovereignty. Oh yeah?  I’m seeing first hand what the pc left has done here.  And there damn well are Americans who are their first cousins.
So I worry.  The only saving grace, maybe, is that Americans are armed to the teeth. The question is, will those weapons actually come into use?

Stay Tuned.

Foreign nurses will be able to work here with just TWO days’ testing in EU shake-up

By SOPHIE BORLAND

Poorly-trained foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain after completing only two days of role playing and multiple choice tests.

The short course replaces the rigorous assessments and exams currently undertaken by those failing to meet NHS standards.

To work on wards, nurses are likely to need to show only their skills on dummies, with no requirement to speak good English.

The shake-up is being imposed by the European Union, which says tests on foreign workers go against its freedom of movement laws.

Senior health officials fear the multiple choice assessments, which will begin in April, will be unrealistic and too easy.

Under the existing rules, any EU nurse whose training is deemed substandard must go on an intensive adaptation programme lasting up to six months before they can work in UK hospitals. The courses, which can cost up to £1,500, are run by universities and consist of theory tests, written coursework and practical exams in wards or nursing homes.

Although not directly assessed on their English, candidates would struggle to pass without good language skills.

The regime is so strict that only a quarter of the 8,000 EU nurses who apply to work in the UK every year see the process through.

Most are put off by the cost and difficulty of making the grade.

Those not up to scratch largely come from states relatively new to the EU such as Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia.

When the MIL was still alive and there were care givers assigned to help my wife, and these weren’t volunteers but paid workers, we had one mouthy and disagreeable young woman from one of those countries mentioned.  Not that she was the only troublesome helper, there were a couple of native Brits who were less then agreeable altho competent enough. But it wasn’t easy getting ppl and the MIL was totally bedridden and so the wife let some things slide rather then gripe. In the case of the foreign worker, she left for a nursing job somewhere, and I feel sorry for whoever finds themselves in her care. She spoke English very well, but I don’t think she understood it as well as she spoke it, and pointing out a mistake was taken as an insult.

The new tests are being drawn up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It is understood they will involve multiple choice, role plays and demonstrations on dummy patients – and may last just two days.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘These multiple choice tests will be far too simple.

‘This is giving patient safety no priority. How can nurses’ ability to carry out drug calculations and all the other skills required on the ward be assessed in a multiple choice test? It’s disgraceful that this is allowed to happen.’

John Lister, director of campaign group London Health Emergency, said: ‘This is a retrograde step and this is something the NMC should be challenging in court.’

The council is being forced to take action after being threatened with lawsuits by Bulgarian nurses who claimed it was too difficult to register to work in Britain.

The EU has also blocked rigorous checks on foreign GPs who want to work here. This had disastrous results in 2008 when engineer David Gray died at the hands of German locum Daniel Ubani, who gave him ten times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Mr Gray’s son Stuart, who is a GP in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said: ‘It’s a ludicrous system. The NHS is a very different to other countries’ health systems and people need training before they can practise here.’

Nurses from countries outside the EU will still face stringent tests.

The NHS relies on foreign nurses and in the past decade more than 90,000 have registered to work in the UK, mainly from the Philippines, Australia, India and South Africa.

Relaxing the entry requirements for EU nurses is likely to see an influx of nurses who had felt it too much trouble to work in Britain.

A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council said: ‘The test will ensure that EU-trained nurses are able to meet the same standards that we require of nurses who trained in the UK.’

A Department of Health spokesman said foreign healthcare professionals would need to pass robust language and competency tests.

CARRY ON NURSE

Posted by peiper     on 02/08/2011 at 11:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety •  
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