§ Dr. StoateTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make ward allowance awards available to out-patient department and rehabilitation/clinical unit nurses. [155276]
§ Mr. DenhamWard Environment Budgets were introduced on 1 October last year. Each budget will be worth a minimum of £5,000 in 2001–02. The budgets can be spent on whatever the ward sisters and charge nurses who manage the ward consider will best enhance and humanise patient care or improve the working lives of staff.
All wards can have a budget. No types of ward are excluded. In the vast majority of cases it will be clear which units within a hospital are a ward. At the margins there may however be some doubt whether a particular unit constitutes a ward for the purposes of these budgets. Where there is doubt, the hospital managers will decide how a ward is defined within their hospital with a view to delivering the spirit of this initiative.