I did notice this article on the BBC website earlier today. It's irritating, particularly when people like us work long, often unsociable hours with nothing but burn-out to show for it! There have been a lot of petitions put to the government this year about nursing, pretty much all of which have come back with a patronising "no". In the one you write about, the following line caused me to laugh in something of a cynical manner; "The Government's view is that imposing minimal levels for nursing staff to patient ratios could be detrimental to patient care" Since when were the Government bothered about detrimental effects to patient care? Perhaps they should have thought a little more carefully about that before they decided to sell our hospital buildings to private investors for us to rent back, and give all of our non-clinical tasks over to the private sector. 10/10 to the Government, yet again. Doesn't it make you want to bang your head against a brick wall?! Elizabeth :)