NHS in Crisis

"The problem [of nurse shortages] is so big, it’s more than a recruitment campaign alone that’s needed."

Michelle Dixon (spokeswoman for the Royal College of Nursing) in 1997.

"Pay is now the burning issue in the NHS".

Bob Abbersley (head of health at Unison) who talked of the recruitment and retention "crisis" at the labour party conference 1998.

"Local pay has been a disaster…Trusts have not enough money to pay more than trivial increases locally."

Thornley C. (1998) ‘Contesting Local Pay: The Decentralization of Collective Bargaining in the NHS’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 36(3) pp 413-434.

"Current performance indicators used in the NHS also induce a range of unintended and undesirable side-effects."

Mannion R. Goddard M. and Smith P. ‘Assessing the Performance of NHS Trusts’ in Performance Measurement – Theory and Practice, Centre for Business Performance, University of Cambridge (1998).

"There is no correlation between the qualitative judgements of key stakeholders, whether they are the most senior personnel specialists or the most informed senior line managers, and quantitative indicators such as the labour turnover gap, unit labour costs and productivity."

Guest D. and Peccei R. (1994) ‘The Nature and Causes of Effective Human Resource Management’ British Journal of Industrial Relations, 32(2) pp 219-242.

"The ultimate justification for a professional act is that it is to the best of the professional’s knowledge, the right act. He might consult his colleagues before he acts, but the decision is his… The ultimate justification of an administrative act, however, is that it is in line with the organization’s rules and regulations, and that it has been approved – directly or by implication – by a superior rank."

Etzioni A. ed (1969) The Semi-Professions and their Organization, Collier-Macmillan, London.

"Male dominated professions gain control over and subordinate female-dominated occupations. This is most clearly demonstrated in medicine, where the medical profession is male-dominated and where [in] the process of achieving its dominant professional status, the female occupations of nursing, health visiting and midwifery were subordinated."

Abbott P. and Wallace C. eds. (1990) The Sociology of the Caring Professions, Falmer Press, London

"...a unique example of the collectivist provision of health care in a market society."
(Klein The Politics of the NHS 1983)

"Four stereotypes… the angel, the handmaiden/non-entity, the battle-axe and the sex symbol… are important not only because nurses themselves feel that these stereotypes are detrimental, but also because they are particularly well defined in terms of popular images within the visual and/or written media."

Holloway ‘Media Representation of the Nurse’, in Soothill, Henry and Kendrick eds (1992) Themes and perspectives in Nursing