Healthcare assistants (HCAs)

[Workingman]

A new report says that HCAs have no minimum standard of training before they can work unsupervised. Some are only given a DVD to watch before they start work.

Hell, I bet that will come as a BIG surprise to many patients - It did me. I was under the impression that they were "almost" nurses, given the work they do. The times when I was on the heart ward over the past couple of years nearly all the 'nursing' was done by HCAs including taking blood, pre-op, adjusting drips and so on. The proper nurses appeared to be clip-board mechanics and paper shufflers.... oh, and they did the drug runs.

No wonder some parts of the NHS are failing.

[TheOstrich]

Personally, I found the current lack of even basic training requirements for Heathcare Assistants sounded pretty criminal. I know a lot of it, like infection control etc., is sheer common sense, but even so .....

I'm not even sure that the proposed two weeks training regime is adequate. This sort of report just confirms my avowed intention never to get involved with the NHS, to be honest.

[Workingman]

Personally, I found the current lack of even basic training requirements for Heathcare Assistants sounded pretty criminal.

Couldn't agree more. I honestly thought that the modern system was a modification of the SRN/SEN system whereby the modern degree qualified nurse was slightly higher than an SRN and a HCA slightly lower than an SEN, but both were "nurses". There will be many people out there who thought roughly the same. To now find out that many HCAs have little or no nursing training is, to say the least, a shocking state of affairs.

[JoM]

Personally, I found the current lack of even basic training requirements for Heathcare Assistants sounded pretty criminal.

Couldn't agree more. I honestly thought that the modern system was a modification of the SRN/SEN system whereby the modern degree qualified nurse was slightly higher than an SRN and a HCA slightly lower than an SEN, but both were "nurses". There will be many people out there who thought roughly the same. To now find out that many HCAs have little or no nursing training is, to say the least, a shocking state of affairs.

I used to think that until a couple of people I know got jobs as HCAs It's shocking and, as you said, the wards seem to be mainly staffed by these with trained nurses being few and far between who you only really see when the drugs trolley comes around.

[Aggers]

Oh dear1

Something else to confirm my view that "this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England"
is going down the pan fast. Why, oh why is it?

I used to think that the NHS was a wonderful organization, and something to be proud of.
There are, of course, still many good, efficient and caring people there. In my opinion the
rot has set in from the top. namely the politicians. They, over the years, and irrespective of
which party has been in power, have been responsible for the downfall of moral standards in
all walks of life. Everything they have touched has been corrupted.

[KateLMead]

Equally worrying is the fact that many taken on from abroad have little command of the English Language and this applies to doctors, one of whom I met in May.. My sister has just written a complaint to the hospital where her husband has been interned for the past three weeks. He is a diabetic, a leg amputee has a colostomy bag and this was left FULL to bursting for over two weeks, a bell out of reach, unkempt until she visited neglected in every way..
My sister in law had surgery four years ago (micro surgery) to remove her gallbladder.. She has suffered an infection pus oozing from her belly button antibiotics, visits to the hospital who could have no explanation as to why she would be in constant pain. But then her local Dr discovered a Stitch that had remained there for four years !!! and when she went to the hospital following discovering the problem they discovered two more that had been rotting her innards .. I mentioned about the ten African nurses recruited overseas who were found to have AIDS, were they returned ? No!! kept on in the hospital where they represented no threat to the patients so it was said, at the cost of £45,000 a year if they became or were fully blown.
Dr's dress in muftie no longer expected to wear a uniform, outdoor shoes worn, exceptions if they wash their hands following seeing patients..
Every MP and those working for government and probably Councils have private insurance, Paid for by the tax payer?
This country is good at bragging what a wonderful NHS we have but pull back the sheets and you will see what is underneath as we did when my friends husband was shown to a made up bed that had not been changed in which the previous occupant had fouled.

And when they are caught out we get those drivelling apologies.. We have Lessons to Learn. And bosses who when questioned have been primed as to what they should say to stop more Sh** hitting the fan

[Aggers]

Kate, Did you hear the announcement the other day, that the infamous Liverpool
Pathway to Death, is to be terminated, because it has been subjected to so much
abuse?

I should think so, too.

[KateLMead]

Kate, Did you hear the announcement the other day, that the infamous Liverpool
Pathway to Death, is to be terminated, because it has been subjected to so much
abuse?

I should think so, too.

I repeat John, over the years when I have raised this shocking disgraceful issue, the denials came in right left and centre to a point as many know I left our sister forum due to the furore I created with a number of posters over this subject.. Even over the past six months since partial truths have been revealed, with those responsible at all levels with the B*****ds responsible who are still holding their positions in the NHS with their outrageous salaries and top of the range vehicles.. (only the best)..and in government where there also has been a cover up. "We cannot believe a word they say"!! This practice is not to be terminated only the name, now families "Must" give consent before the sick and elderly are "Put Down"!! The change will probably be a few tender words to the patients as they administer the poison rather than as they have ignored him. My own brother who should never have undergone surgery he was handicapped, he went in for a spinal operation full of hope and never came out.

[cromwell]

This country seems to be running out of money.
Healthcare assistants are doing jobs formerly done by trained nurses; nurses are doing jobs formerly done by doctors.
In education we now have classroom assistants where once there were only teachers.
In law enforcement we have PCSO's where once we had properly trained constables.
As for the LCP! "Problems in it's implementation". What a choice of words!
These days people who come up with the policies are never to blame; it's always "how the policies were implemented".