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Wednesday, 29 June 2005 10:44

BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk

Hewitt wins doctors respect but attacked over A&E waiting

Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, yesterday escaped the tong lashing many had predicted at the British Medical Association’s Manchester conference after earning the respect of doctors during a round of questioning, The Guardian newspaper has reported

In the first address by a health minister in 100 years of BMA conferences, Ms Hewitt was heckled as she defended the Government’s partial ban on smoking in public places, but received sustained applause when she left.

Defending the Government’s stance she said: “As public attitudes continue to strengthen, it is probably only a matter of time before we end up in the same position as Scotland and Ireland [where smoking will be banned in all public spaces].

Ms Hewitt said that NHS reforms would continue apace and promised to lift the ban on NHS consultants undertaking private sector work in a bid to cut NHS waiting lists.

The most severe rebuke of the Health Secretary came from senior house officer Jennie Blackwell who said that accident and emergency targets had turned her hospital into a “war zone” as patients were removed from A&E before they breached target of 98 per cent seen within four hours.

“We have patients strewn all over the unit, sitting in non-medical areas with serious medical conditions,” she said.

“It is frankly dangerous…Morale is suffering terribly. We all dread going to work, especially in the winter. Please, please, please reduce this target of 98 per cent as it’s awful for patients and awful for us.”

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