‘It’s because no-one has time to sit down’: NHS staff ridicule Health Secretary Matt Hancock for claiming some nurses are expected to stand up when doctors enter a room

• Mr Hancock made the comments at a nursing summit in Birmingham yesterday
• He was full of praise for nurses and he said: ‘We need more nurses as leaders’
• But NHS medics on Twitter accused him of talking ‘nonsense’
• One said ‘it isn’t Downton Abbey’ and another said he is ‘disconnected’

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been accused of talking ‘nonsense’ after saying some nurses are expected to stand up when a doctor enters the room.

The Government minister made the comment in a speech yesterday and quickly drew criticism from NHS workers. 

One doctor said ‘it isn’t Downton Abbey’, while another said Mr Hancock’s claim sounded ‘mythical’.

Another trainee medic suggested he is mistaking people not having time to sit down for outdated politeness.

Nurses responding to Mr Hancock today said decades ago they used to stand whenever a consultant came into the room ‘out of courtesy’.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured at Downing Street yesterday) has prompted ridicule after saying some nurses still stand up when doctors enter the room

Speaking at the Chief Nursing Officer Summit yesterday, Mr Hancock said: ‘You know hierarchy can be a hindrance to improvement.

‘I find it shocking that, in my grandmother’s day, nurses were expected to stand up when a doctor entered the room.

‘And worse, I find that’s still the case in some antiquated, archaic corners of the NHS. I want it to stop. If anything, it should be doctors standing up for nurses.

‘Because who runs a hospital at 2am in the morning? Who keeps the show on the road?

‘We need more nurses as leaders.’

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But veteran NHS workers on Twitter ridiculed the Health Secretary, with many coming out to say they had never seen this happen.

Dr Pete Deveson said: ‘Don’t want to say Matt Hancock is *lying* here, but I’ve been an NHS doctor for 19 years and this has literally never happened.’

Carly Grandidge, who calls herself a neurosurgical trainee, said: ‘In 15 years, never. Maybe he is mistaking the fact no one has time to sit down for those standing as an antiquated social grace.’

User Mr Brewski added: ‘I’ve only worked in the NHS for 35 years but I’ve NEVER seen anyone stand up when someone else enters the room.

‘The only exception is if it is known that person has had a particularly tough time. If so someone will often say, “You sit there, do you want a tea/coffee?”‘

Mr Hancock’s speech focused on praising the dedication and hard work of nurses, and he said they ‘often make better leaders than doctors’.

Nurses have said they would in the past stand up ‘out of courtesy’ when doctors entered a room to examine a patient (Pictured: Staff and patients at Sydenham Hospital, south London)

Dr Pete Deveson said: ‘Don’t want to say Matt Hancock is *lying* here, but I’ve been an NHS doctor for 19 years and this has literally never happened’

Carly Grandidge, who calls herself a neurosurgical trainee, said: ‘In 15 years, never. Maybe he is mistaking the fact no one has time to sit down for those standing as an antiquated social grace’

Jane Street, a clinical psychologist in London, tweeted: ‘Has @MattHancock ever been in a hospital? I’ve never seen this in 30 years in the NHS. Mythical’

User Mr Brewski added: ‘I’ve only worked in the NHS for 35 years but I’ve NEVER seen anyone stand up when someone else enters the room’

Dean Burns, an emergency and critical care doctor in Hertfordshire said: ‘Do me a favour, @MattHancock this is nonsense..’

User Jerusha MurdochKelly, a paediatric nurse in Essex said: ‘I completely agree I’ve never seen this in my 25yrs nursing around the country…’

Jane Street, a clinical psychologist in London, tweeted: ‘Has @MattHancock ever been in a hospital? I’ve never seen this in 30 years in the NHS. Mythical.’

Dean Burns, an emergency and critical care doctor in Hertfordshire said: ‘Do me a favour, @MattHancock this is nonsense..’

User Jerusha MurdochKelly, a paediatric nurse in Essex, said: ‘I completely agree I’ve never seen this in my 25yrs nursing around the country… to me shows how disconnected @MattHancock from the frontline nursing & medicine.’

And David Oliver, a doctor for 30 years, added: ‘I have never ever seen or heard of such a thing in 30 years as an NHS doc. It isn’t Downton Abbey.’

The Royal College of Nursing responded by saying: ‘Nurses are on their feet 24 hours a day.’

HOW LEADING DOCTORS REACTED TO MR HANCOCK’S APPOINTMENT TO HEALTH SECRETARY

Leading doctors welcomed new Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock to the role in July 2018, but reminded him of the challenge he faces.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of council at the British Medical Association, said: ‘We congratulate Mr Hancock on his appointment and look forward to working constructively with him on the development of health policies to ensure safe, high-quality patient care.

‘While there is a new secretary of state, the challenges the health service faces remain the same – patients are facing longer waits for care, so-called “winter pressures” in the NHS are now hitting the service all year round, and it lacks doctors, nurses, and beds.

‘This appointment comes at a crucial time for the health service and doctors want to see the new secretary of state put the NHS on a sustainable footing for the future, address the serious funding shortfall and ensure we can recruit and retain the right number of doctors, with the right support and infrastructure, to deliver high-quality care for patients.’

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: ‘The great survivor as health secretary has moved on.

‘His legacy will be a better settlement for health than many had expected and a real focus on patient safety.

‘He inherited a tangled mess of a reorganisation from his predecessor and he had to live with a succession of austere funding settlements which were never going to meet rising demand.

‘Given so little to play with, Hunt deserves credit for helping to keep the show on the road, but the health service, better in many ways, has also slipped back when it comes to meeting many of its core standards.

‘His successor has one overwhelming challenge, how to help the NHS and the social care system to become sustainable in the face of rising demand and a severe workforce crisis.’

Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, added: ‘The jury will be out on the new health secretary to see if he is able to put his financial skills to good use and ensure adequate funding and appropriate use of resources for the NHS in the coming months and years.’

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