NHS relies on untrained assistants – RCN

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has criticised the NHS for being overly reliant on untrained healthcare assistants.

Dr Peter Carter, head of the RCN, suggests that they should be subject to regulation and given increased training.

Healthcare assistants help nurses with tasks such as feeding and washing patients, as well as mobilisation and performing catheterisation, although they receive only minimal training in some cases.

Carter said: “Many hospitals employ healthcare assistants as opposed to registered nurses, and many of them don't give them as much as an hour's training. It is wholly unacceptable that the elderly should be cared for by people who are not given the rudimentary training.

“Cheap care is poor care. Poor care ends up being more expensive. We must invest properly in the workforce and then we will get fewer problems and complications.

“There are huge variations in training across the board. People are given a tunic which looks like a nurse's uniform and they are asked to pick it up as they go along. I can't think of any other sector where that would be acceptable.”

Yet the Government is opposed to enforcing national statutory regulation, as this is not considered proportionate in the case for healthcare assistants.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said: “The government intends to establish the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care as the national accrediting body for a system of assured voluntary registers for groups that are currently not subject to statutory professional regulation, which includes healthcare assistants.”