Nurse
of the Year quits NHS in despair
By
Jenny Hope and Jaya Narain - Daily Mail, October 17, 2007
Her
passionate dedication to patients saw her named 2007's Nurse
of the Year. But seven months after accepting her award, Justine
Whitaker is quitting the NHS.
The
37-year-old mother of two, who was honoured for her work with
prostate cancer patients, is disillusioned with hospital bureaucracy
and money wasted on Government reforms. She is leaving her post
as a clinical nurse specialist at East Lancashire Primary Care
Trust.
Mrs.
Whitaker blames an 'atmosphere of mistrust and fear' for her
decision, claiming the strain of trying to meet Government targets
is taking its toll on nurses. While front-line staff are told
to penny pinch with needles and bandages, highly paid managers
attend meetings where decisions are never made, she said.
"Over
the past ten years or so the amount of form filling I do each
day has gone up enormously and I spend a larger part of each
day on paperwork," she said. "Some days I don't see
a patient and that is not good. I am a nurse and I want to nurse
- that is my profession. We have a Government saying it has
talked to thousands of nurses and doctors - but it is not hearing
what we are saying. They are just paying lip service and that
is not right."
Mrs.
Whitaker has spent almost 20 years helping patients with the
condition lymphoedema, a swelling of various parts of the body
caused by failure of the lymphatic system to drain fluid. She
has also invented a pain relief device to help men after prostate
surgery.
After
receiving her prize, awarded by Nursing Standard magazine earlier
this year, she lunched with then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt,
who congratulated her on her achievements. But the glow of winning
such an accolade has quickly faded.
Now,
as she prepares for life outside the NHS, she has a list of
concerns that she believes are shared by many of her colleagues
on the wards in East Lancashire. These include:
*
The day-to-day bureaucracy and form-filling in the NHS
*Uncertainty
caused by the merger of two local general hospitals.
*Worrying
about whether colleagues will be made redundant.
*New
deadlines to meet Government targets.
"I
leave behind a groups of very unhappy nurses who have been put
through the mill with constant reform," she said. Although
her Trust has reassured staff there will be no job losses, Mrs.
Whitaker said mistrust and fear dominates the wards.
"For
me, decision time came when I was driving to work and thought:
'What am I going to be facing today?' That's a feeling I have
never had before. This is a very hard decision for me. It was
not a decision I took lightly, but layer upon layer of red tape
has been introduced since the Tories first brought in private
managers. It got to the stage when I was so sick of the bureaucracy
that I had to make a stand."
Mrs.
Whitaker said the failure of the Government to listen to the
concerns of nurses was behind her decision. "I am in favour
of change," she said. "It is not that I cannot cope
or do not understand but the impact of these reforms is grossly
misunderstood by the Government."
After
leaving college, Mrs. Whitaker started work at St. James's Hospital
in Leeds, where she specialised in lymphology before her current
post as a Macmillan nurse specialist. She has invented the Whitaker
compression pouch, a garment which helps relieve painful swelling
suffered by some men with prostate cancer.
The
pouch is sold worldwide but she has made no money from it, saying
she did not go into nursing 'to be a millionaire'. In December,
she will become senior lecturer in lymphoedema at the University
of Central Lancashire. She will continue to practise as an independent
nurse, working with lymphoedema patients.
"I'm
looking forward to the challenge, though I wish I had been able
to continue my work with the NHS," she said.
Peter
Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said:
"It saddens us that such a distinguished nurse is leaving
the NHS."
A
spokesman for the Department of Health said: "The Health
Secretary has acknowledged that too much change can affect morale.
That is why Sir Ara Darzi is leading a process of dialogue with
staff and patients."
