Nurses 'want Tory apology'

Nurses say Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith should apologise for criticising their profession in the controversy over the NHS treatment of 94-year-old Rose Addis, according to an internet poll.

A poll run on the Nursing Times' website found 93% of just over 400 readers who responded said Mr Duncan Smith should apologise for his comments.

They objected to the Tory leader's claim Mrs Addis was treated "worse than a dog" by staff at North London's Whittington hospital.

The Conservatives have said Mr Duncan Smith had every right to raise the case on behalf of a patient, especially as they believe the Addis case is symptomatic of wider problems caused by government health mismanagement.

Mrs Addis's family complained that she had been abandoned, caked in blood, in an A&E cubicle.

However, the hospital vehemently disputed the claims, and said that she had received appropriate care.

Disgusted

Maura Buchanan, chair of congress at the Royal College of Nursing's council, told the journal she was "disgusted".

She said: "We cannot be pulverised every time a politician wants to play football with the NHS."

Council member Sylvia Denton told the Nursing Times that patients' clinical details should not be the subject of political debate.

"I was appalled. If I, as a nurse, did that I would be struck off and rightly so."

Gail Adams, national chair of Unison's nursing sector told the publication the Conservatives were "running down" nursing and damaging the profession with "drip drip attacks".

A Labour Party spokesman said: "Iain Duncan Smith made a major strategic blunder in describing the care that hard working doctors and nurses give to NHS patients as worse than that of a dog.

"The Conservative Party have put themselves against the NHS and against the dedicated hard working professionals who do such a great job for millions of NHS patients."