NURSES from Suffolk are today preparing to speak up about concerns over foundation trusts in healthcare.

NURSES from Suffolk are today preparing to speak up about concerns over foundation trusts in healthcare.

The county branch of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will be given the floor for the first time at the union's national congress this year.

One of its representatives, Pauline Entwistle, is due to raise the issue of whether the drive to create foundation trust institutions, such as hospitals and mental health trusts, is actually good for care.

Tom Bolger, vice-chairman of the Suffolk branch, said: “There is a concern about keeping the focus on what we're really here to do, which is providing nursing and care to the people of the county, rather than meeting foundation trust targets.

“Many of our members feel that the demands on them to meet targets is such that they don't feel the benefit of the investment in the NHS.”

The concerns follow the scandal of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where it emerged earlier this year that a drive to become a foundation trust put patient care at risk.

Meanwhile another RCN delegate from East Anglian, Carol Watts, will propose allowing councils to legalise brothels following the murders of five sex workers in Ipswich in 2006 to allow better health care.