The UK’s Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has hit out at a Conservative peer after he described nurses at one British hospital as “grubby, drunken and promiscuous”.
Lord Mancroft made the claim in the House of Lords after he was admitted to an unnamed NHS hospital in the West Country.
He alleged that nurses chatted to one another about their sex lives and alcohol intake in front of patients, who they regarded as “a nuisance”.
“The nurses who looked after me were mostly grubby – we are talking about dirty fingernails and hair – and were slipshod and lazy. Worst of all, they were drunken and promiscuous,” he said.
But RCN general secretary and chief executive Dr Peter Carter said: “These comments are extremely unhelpful and grossly unfair on nurses across the UK who work extremely hard to provide patients with the highest standards of care.
“Where poor nursing exists, it should always be challenged through the proper channels.
“If any patient has an issue with their treatment by staff they should raise this with the healthcare provider, rather than make sweeping generalisations about nurses and sexist insults about the behaviour of British women.
“The RCN has contacted the trust concerned over these allegations.”
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