There is a need to ensure general practice nurses (GPNs) are ‘really clear’ about the pay uplift they are ‘entitled to’, a deputy chief nursing officer for England has said.
Earlier today, the government confirmed an increase to the global sum for GP practices in England, in order to fund a 6% pay uplift for practice staff, including nurses.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced the global sum had been increased from £102.28 to £104.73 per patient.
As reported by our sister publication Pulse, negotiations between the DHSC and BMA concluded last week, with the GP Committee commenting that they had done so ‘satisfactorily’.
Deputy chief nursing officer Acosia Nyanin, whose portfolio covers primary care and community nursing, was speaking at the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) annual conference today when she was asked for her thoughts on how variations within the terms and conditions of GPNs could be addressed.
She said: ‘While I won’t get into the issues around contracting – they are complex – I absolutely endorse the view that there is more discussion around it.
‘But also, the importance of continuing in the influencing role that we have around making sure that our primary care nurses are really clear, particularly for this year in England, about what they should be entitled to as part of an uplift.’
She also noted the ‘opportunity’ presented by integrated care boards to help support an ‘integrated way of working’ and to be seen across the system as ‘one team’.
Also giving an address at the conference, Ms Nyanin said she had seen during her first two months in post that ‘often it can feel as though community nursing [and] primary care nursing isn’t as visible as it should be’.
She said part of her role, working alongside England’s national nursing team, was about ensuring that ‘we continue to raise the profile’ around ‘the incredible efforts and the exceptional commitment that our community and primary care nurses have to providing the best possible care’.
‘For me, the role of community nursing, primary care nursing or whichever branch of community nursing… the role [and] value cannot be underestimated,’ said Ms Nyanin.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) also recently stressed it was ‘vital’ that GPNs received the pay increase they were entitled to and urged that anyone who does not receive the rise to contact the college for support.
