The Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, was criticised in Bournemouth yesterday by front-line NHS nurses at the annual conference of the Royal College of Nursing. They booed and slow hand-clapped as she tried to suggest that nurses had had high pay rises and that the problem of NHS deficits was only in a relatively small number of NHS Trusts.
Patricia Hewitt started the week by saying that the NHS has had its best year ever.
Hemel Hempstead MP, Mike Penning, commented:
“This just shows how out of touch she is. If Patricia Hewitt had met with more front-line NHS staff, she would know that in a large number of hospitals her rhetoric just doesn’t ring true. She has received many invitations to visit Hemel hospital including 1,400 of them collected by The Gazette’s ‘Hands off Hemel Hospital’ campaign and delivered personally by myself and SW Herts MP David Gauke. If she had taken up on these invitations she could have come to Hemel to see the reality”.
“With the loss of 700 jobs and closure of many departments, Hemel Hempstead residents have certainly not had the best NHS year ever!” he added. “The nurses at Bournemouth know the reality of life in Labour’s NHS even if Ms Hewitt does not. Jobs cut, beds lost, departments closed.” | 
