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Clause 9—(Enforcement)

Volume 388: debated on Friday 2 April 1943

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Lords Amendment:

In page 7, line 28, at the end, insert:

"on producing, if so required, some duly authenticated document showing his authority."

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This Amendment secures that, as in other Acts, the persons authorised to inspect premises must, when they are carrying out an inspection, produce evidence if called upon that they are in fact duly authorised to carry out that inspection.

Question put, and agreed to.

Lords Amendment:

In page 10, line 32, at the end, insert new Clause:

( Penalty for false representation that another is a registered or enrolled nurse.)

"Any person who, knowing that some other person is not registered or enrolled, makes any statement or does any act calculated to suggest that that other person is registered or enrolled shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding, in the case of a first offence, ten pounds, and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, fifty pounds."

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

An Amendment to do what this Amendment does was brought forward by the hon. Member for Sunderland (Mr. Storey) when this Bill was being considered in Committee. The wording of his suggestion would not, we thought, carry out what he wanted to do. In this Amendment it is made clear that if a third person suggests that someone who is an untrained person is a nurse he or she also is guilty of an offence. The House will remember that any untrained person who gives the impression or states that he or she is a nurse commits an offence if he or she is not a State enrolled or State registered nurse. If an agency sending out nurses does the same thing, it is committing an offence. This Amendment deals with the case of what might happen in a not reputable nursing home where there may be a person dressed as, and introduced as, a nurse who is not a nurse. Any third person doing that would, under this new Clause, be deemed to have committed an offence.

As described by the Parliamentary Secretary, this Amendment sounds very innocuous, but there is a danger. I think the House ought to be made aware of the danger that does exist. What is going to happen is that if a nursing agency sends out a nurse, it must describe that nurse. It must not send out a nurse and leave it to be believed that she does or does not come under some particular category. The agency can send out a State registered nurse, or a State registered tuberculosis nurse, who is on the supplementary register, or a State registered fever nurse, or an enrolled assistant nurse. But there is a nurse who does not come under any of these designations, and if an agency sends out that nurse, what is going to happen if it is believed that she is a State registered nurse? She is the only one entitled to be called "nurse" without some prefix.

The House will perhaps remember that in the Debate I tried to get the Minister to agree to the opening of the register to those nurses who had all the qualifications but were not on the register because at the time the original Act was introduced for some reason they were unable to comply with the demand and have their names put on. Some of them were out of the country at the time of the Act of 1919, and the last date upon which they could have their names put on the register was 1925. As recently as this morning I have had a letter from a nurse who is holding a fairly responsible position, who was married and was widowed three weeks after the date in 1925 when she could have been placed on the register. She is not a State registered nurse. She has got her school certificate, a splendid training school, and has all the qualifications that would be held by a State registered nurse. If she is sent out to an agency and it is believed that by some means she has been described as a State registered nurse, an offence will be committed. I am speaking in this way because I still want to urge the Ministry to get over the barrier that is presented by the General Nursing Council and give a large number of nurses that which I believe to be their due—the right of registration.

I think I should perhaps make it clearer what this Clause actually does. It says that a person will commit an offence if he knowingly makes any statement that someone who is not a registered or enrolled nurse is a registered or enrolled nurse. That is what the Amendment does. Therefore the nurse to whom the hon. Member has referred would not come within this at all, so that this particular Amendment will not touch that point which I know the hon. Member is interested in, and which, as stated before, might be looked into when we come to the subject of regulations. This Amendment only applies on a question of fact.

As I understand it, this does not cover the whole nursing profession. I want to know whether the woman who is a dental nurse and is described as such will be affected by this Bill or not. The individuals in question are described as dental nurses, and they have no desire to be described as anything else. Will they be affected by using the word "nurse"?

Perhaps I might reply to that point if I am in Order. That has nothing to do with this Amendment. We discussed that point when we were discussing the Bill.

Question, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment," put, and agreed to.