Editorial
NURSING MANAGEMENT April 2009 | Volume 16 | Number 1 3
Editor Nick Lipley
Tel: 020 8872 3166
Email: nick.lipley@rcnpublishing.co.uk
Consultant editor Donna Kinnair
Managing director/publisher Linda Thomas
Editorial director Jean Gray
Senior editor Gary Bell
Sales and marketing director Philip Whomes
Senior production editor Sarah Howe
Production editor Duncan Tyler
Art directors Paul Swainson and Ken McLoone
Picture editor Philip Brecht
Assistant picture editor Helen Jones
Administration manager Helen Hyland
Email: helen.hyland@rcnpublishing.co.uk
Editorial admin assistant Sandra Lynch
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Deputy sales manager Julia Gomersall
Advertisement and sponsorship executives
Kelly Smith, Syretta Allen
Tel: 020 8872 3123. Fax: 020 8872 3197.
Advertisement production Sally Gauntlett
Classified sales manager Andy McCallum
Tel: 020 8423 1333. Fax: 020 8872 3196.
Email: andy.mccallum@rcnpublishing.co.uk
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Freddie Collier Tel: 020 8872 3124.
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Mandy Croggon, Shona Gethin
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Editorial Advisory Board
Ruth Chauhan
Development lead for older people,
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust,
Birmingham.
Deborah Clatworthy
Assistant director of nursing (risk management),
The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, London.
Geraldine Cunningham
Head of learning and development, RCN.
Gemma Ellis
Consultant nurse in adult critical care,
University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.
Deborah Humphrey
Consultant nurse and locum service manager,
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Jenny Kay
Director of nursing,
Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, Kent.
Linda Kelly
Vascular access service lead nurse,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Caroline Shuldham
Director of nursing, governance and informatics,
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust,
London.
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Staying upbeat in the downturn
The past month has been a busy one
for the NHS. As we approach the end
of the financial year, managers across
the service are under pressure to
understand the latest tariff for hospital
care and how the economic downturn
will affect budgets.
Meanwhile, we try to deliver services
against operational standards such
as those to ensure treatment within
18 weeks of referral, or admission,
discharge or transfer within four hours
of arrival at an emergency department.
At the same time, primary care
trusts have been assessed against the
Department of Health's ten worldclass
commissioning competencies and are
committed to securing better services
through collaboration.
All of these activities help to improve
services, which in turn drives
expectations among service users.
Health minister Lord Darzi, by
focusing on the quality of care that
patients receive, has put nursing
and nurse leaders at the heart of
healthcare provision.
In any economic downturn however,
there is an increase in povertyrelated
ill health, and this has led some to
question our ability to implement
Lord Darzi's principles and to
predict that these will not outlive the
economic downturn.
I discourage such pessimism however,
as do Helen Chin and Ben Totterdell,
whose article on implementing
Lord Darzi's reforms through
practice development is published
in Nursing Management this month
(page 24).
There has been a great deal of
investment in health care and how
we meet the needs of our local
populations is the envy of other
public services.
We have a responsibility to focus on
productivity and quality of care, and
this requires strong local nursing
leadership and improvement in the
skills and confidence of nurses who
deliver front line services.
However bad the national economy
becomes over the next few months,
we should remain optimistic about
our healthcare services, and we
must not forget that we are here to
deliver high quality services for the
patients in our care.
Donna Kinnair
Consultant editor, and
director of nursing and interim
director of commissioning
at Southwark Health and
Social Care, London
In any economic downturn, there is an
increase in povertyrelated ill health.
This has led some to question our ability
to implement Lord Darzi's principles

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