My friend and colleague Helen Evans, a former senior nurse, has started a new campaigning organisation, Nurses for Reform. Healthcare reform debates tend to centre on doctors and policy wonks, but the poor bloody infantry rarely get a look in. And when they do, via the dreadful Royal College of Nursing, it's to resist reform and entrech the worst aspects of statism. The RCN is a 21st centrury equivalent of the NUM.

So three cheers for an organisation which is run by and designed for nurses, and which exists, as the site puts it:

[T]o campaign for more consumer-oriented and sustainable healthcare systems in Britain and Europe.

Even better, NFR has started a blog which you can read here. This is from the first entry, which is spot on:

NFR believes it is no longer acceptable for nurses to sign up to careers in public sector healthcare only to find they are unable to access the resources and autonomy they need to do their work. NFR rejects bland egalitarianism in favour of contestability. Above all else we believe that greater partnership with the private sector is to be actively welcomed and that this sector’s contributions are good news for patients and healthcare professionals alike.

Today, too many nursing trade unions and representative bodies fail nurses because they invariably stick to old and out dated agendas. Instead of championing substantive reform - and in doing so, championing the rights of consumers - they default to short term platitudes such as demanding more tax payers’ money or new forms of legislative favour. Such an approach is not only disasterous for nurses but it is catastrophic for patients.

NFR believes in fundamental change. It believes that only by putting patients and consumers interests first will healthcare improve. It is only when healthcare is opened up to real consumers and trusted brands that nurses will find themselves working in a sustainable environment and with the incentives, resources and encouragement to deliver a responsive, popular and truly high quality service.