Counting nurses can't be that hard - Randerson

3.42.56pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 11th Aug 2008

Nurses would play an essential part in reacting to any health emergencies.

Welsh Lib Dem Spokesperson for Health, Jenny Randerson AM, has called on the Minister for Health to ensure that the Assembly Government keeps a record of the number of practice nurses in Wales. Currently, there is no mechanism to keep track of the number of practice nurses employed despite the obvious benefits for workforce planning and general service provision of such a mechanism.

Jenny Randerson wrote to the Health Minster, Edwina Hart to ask that a mechanism for keeping a count of practice nurses should form part of the next set of negotiations for the GP contract. In her response, the Minister said that she is aiming to begin keeping a record of practice nurses but it will not be a priority for the negotiations.

Jenny Randerson said: "I am really concerned that something as simple as counting the number of nurses employed in practices is not currently done. Counting nurses can't be that hard. This could lead to a serious situation as if there was a big fall in the numbers employed, WAG would not even know. It could also cause problems for emergency planning such as vaccination programmes in the event of a disease epidemic.

"I appreciate that the GP negotiations are full of important priorities, but I believe that this is a crucial issue and should be a big part of workforce planning in the NHS. I hope that the Minister does manage to sort this out and put the situation right.

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