Helen Evans

Government tinkering with AfC will not resolve NHS pay crisis.

Your readers panel (reflections April 30) was asked whether nurses should sacrifice incremental payments to give every NHS nurse in England a 1 per cent rise.

Technology to the rescue for language translation.

I agree with nurse lecturer Gloria Likupe that healthcare professionals need encouragement to respond to the UKs increasing cultural diversity by providing culturally competent care (Art & Science June 4).

Lessons from the military in working together for the benefit of patients.

Frimley Park Hospital hosts a Ministry of Defence hospital unit, with a military nursing, medical and surgical staff team working alongside the NHS workforce. Ward sisters at the hospital have undertaken a six-month leadership programme in partnership with the military to strengthen their leadership skills and role in providing high quality care (News October 1). The sisters say that these programmes have encouraged them to be proactive and lead from the front. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) reports that the culture throughout the organisation is open and transparent, having a clear focus on improvement and putting the patient at the centre of its work. It adds: ‘There is a clear culture of personal accountability among staff, with a strong sense of pride in their work.’ The CQC recently rated Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as ‘outstanding’ – the first time that a trust in England has received such an accolade. It has been declared outstanding in terms of care, responsiveness and leadership. It would appear that the clinicians and managers at Frimley Park work together to provide outstanding patient care, rather than at loggerheads. I would like to see more hospitals encouraging staff engagement through the introduction of military-style leadership and accountability. There are surely lessons for us all from Frimley Park.

Helping a Polish nurse frustrated by delays in her NMC registration.

Follow Nursing Standard @NurseStandard and join the #NScomment chat on Thursdays at 12.30pm nurses, and the claims that ‘they are not out there’. The solution is to increase the training places and stop raiding the resources of other countries. We are turning applicants away from nursing courses, as there are insufficient training places. This is a travesty. The Welsh bill states: ‘Investing in the best care produces the best outcome and experience for the patient. It is also the most cost-effective use of public money.’ We must all support this Welsh bill as it will lead the way for the three other UK countries.

NHS England is a strange creature - a conjoined body with two heads.

Mike Lehane’s Webwise review of the NHS England website (Reviews September 18) makes for a fascinating insight into this new body. His review opens up the workings of this strange new creature – an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health. But things are not straightforward. The creature is like a conjoined twin with two heads, with ministers and the Department of Health in control of one side and the commissioning and provision side of the health service overseen by the other. The health and social care reforms in England have also spawned a bewildering array of cuckoos in the nest, all of whom have a voracious appetite as they grow bigger and learn to fly. It is unfortunate that they all seem to be flying in different directions. Public health appears to have dropped out of the nest altogether and got lost. There are fewer big-beast predators around, especially after the abolition of primary care trusts, strategic health authorities and the NHS executive. But I wonder if we in England have created some new scary Halloween monsters who are going to devour us all.

Commercial probiotic yogurts have few, if any, health benefits.

Mary Hicksons article examining the evidence for the use of probiotics in clinical practice (art&science March 20) is most informative.

Nice swimming against the tide with its new quality standards

I am pleased that the RCN has endorsed the quality standards for adult NHS services launched by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Patients benefit when nurses learn from their own inpatient experience

We often hear that nurses and doctors make the worst patients. Emma Dawson-Goodey disproves this myth (reflections May 18).

Riots highlight perils of cuts to police and health budgets

The street violence that started in north London seems to be restricted to the poorer parts of the UKs cities where there is high unemployment and grinding poverty.

Facts about assisted suicide are being distorted by bias.

Celia Manson ( letters June 22 ) is a voice of reason in the debate over assisted dying. This is such an emotional subject for so many people, and not just for those of us working in older peoples care or end of life care.