Less is More

Somebody in the near future will really have to do something about abolishing the Royal College of Nursing. Connoisseurs of ministerial excruciation will recall the incivilities suffered some years ago by the Blairette gargoyle Patsy Hackitt, who charmingly suggested that chronic understaffing might best be dealt with by a few minor adjustments to the rota. Last year, while the anti-NHS bill was still failing at public relations, the RCN passed a vote of no confidence in Twizzler Lansley by ninety-eight per cent; this year, with the anti-NHS act failing at patient care, the Twizzler has suffered yet more ingratitude.

His basic message, as usual, was that nothing is wrong that can't be fixed by cutting everything, and that any other problems are the fault of the NHS. However, being the Twizzler, he helped his case enormously by lecturing the nurses on their professional responsibilities, which must have sounded exceptionally fine coming from the health minister who tried to legislate away his own responsibility for the nation's health. "If any of you have a view that staffing levels are literally not safe for patients", as opposed to metaphorically not safe for patients, "your professional responsibility is to say that," the Twizzler informed. "Part of the responsibility of nursing directors and trust boards is to listen to what you are saying." How fortunate that such responsibilities do not extend to the Department of Health or the Twizzler himself; otherwise people outside the medical profession might imagine that the blame for the NHS' difficulties is doing what the Twizzler has been doing all this time, and lying with the Government.