David Cameron to announce nursing overhaul

The Prime Minister will today host the first meeting of the Nursing Care Quality Forum in Downing Street. The forum, which is made up of 22 nurses, patient groups and other medical experts, will draw up the new nursing guidelines. Over the past year, regulators have raised serious concerns about the basic care offered to NHS patients, particularly the elderly. It emerged that one in five hospitals failed to provide decent standards of sanitation and nutrition for older patients.

Mr Cameron said earlier this year that poor standards had been allowed to develop because politicians had failed to speak frankly about the work of nurses.

He previously called for nurses to carry out hourly ward rounds to check that patients were being properly fed and cared for.

The nursing initiative comes as the Prime Minister attempts to shift the focus from the Budget controversies. Yesterday, he travelled to Derbyshire to launch the Conservatives’ campaign for the forthcoming local elections in England.

He insisted that he was interested in acting in the long-term interests of the country, not short-term popularity following a fall in his opinion poll ratings.

“We don’t need a sort-of strategy, or a kind-of campaign,” the Prime Minister said. “We need a flat-out, full-throttle fight. This is a Government that’s looking at the horizon, not at the headlines, that cares about working for the long-term good, not short-term popularity, that works in the national interest, not the party interest.

“This is us. This is what we believe.”

He added that the Conservatives were helping “strivers” following criticism that he and George Osborne were not connecting with ordinary Britons.

He urged voters to reject the Labour Party, describing the previous government as a “disaster”. However, Conservative aides are privately expecting Labour to win council seats in the elections amid fears that the Tories will be punished for a series of recent policy controversies.