§ 27. Dame Irene Wardasked the Minister of Health whether he will give an assurance that in future money to pay nursing staff will not be reduced or frozen at short notice.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonMy Department has not reduced the sum it has allocated to any hospital authority. If at any time an authority is in danger of overspending it may need to act quickly to avert this, but I have encouraged hospital authorities to keep a continuous watch on the trend of expenditure, particularly expenditure on nurses' salaries, so that sudden changes may be avoided.
§ Dame Irene WardBut will not the right hon. Gentleman agree that this is a matter which is concerning the nursing profession very much indeed, and is not he aware that the subject is under discussion by the professional associations for nursing, so that there must be something in it? His Answer is not very satisfactory.
§ Mr. RobinsonI recognised that the phrase in the hon. Lady's Question was taken from a pamphlet published last Thursday by the King's Fund and the the Royal College of Nursing. I know that there is a good deal of concern in the nursing profession about this. There is also a measure of misunderstanding, 1224 which, I am sorry to say, the hon. Lady seems to share. The fact is that nursing expenditure increased very considerably in recent months, and difficulties arose in some areas because hospital authorities spent considerably more than they had budgeted for on nursing staff.