MP to meet campaigners after husband ‘died like battery hen’

Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) earlier said her husband, who had multiple sclerosis, had been treated with arrogance and indifference in the final days before his death in October.

Questioning the Prime Minister in the Commons on Wednesday, she told David Cameron she remained firmly committed to a free NHS at the point of use – but said there were increasing complaints about nursing in some parts of the system.

Asked on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show yesterday if she would be starting a new campaign for more compassion in hospitals, Mrs Clwyd said: “Yes is the short answer. I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of emails from people from all over the country and the theme is the same.

“There are some good nurses, but there are also some very bad nurses and people have talked about their own experiences.” Quoting from some of the emails she had received, she told how one had said “the nursing profession is no longer the caring profession” while another added that “since they made nursing a degree course the wrong kind of people are entering the profession... we do not need a load of snooty-nosed pen pushers”.

She said she had previously been on the Royal Commission on the NHS, which reported in 1979, but that “very few” of the recommendations were put in place.

Evidence received on levels of care, she added, had shown concerns about declining standards, with claims that standards had been put at risk because of financial constraints, increased workloads and manpower shortages.

She said: “One of these, of course, I saw for myself: neglect of basic nursing routines.”

Mrs Clwyd said she intended to meet with some patient bodies and campaigning groups to see how the issues raised by them could be addressed.

She said: “Obviously there are people who have been doing some work on this over a long period of time and I hope to get together next week, this week, some of the organisations that have been campaigning to see how I can take it forward from there, because the kind of response I’ve had from people all over the country, and from other countries as well, is amazing.

“They are not just one-paragraph letters, they are substantial, many of them documenting their own experience.”