Nurses can deliver as high quality care as GPs in most areas of general practice including preventive healthcare, the management of long-term conditions, and first contact care for people with minor illness, according to a University of Manchester professor.

Some very interesting comments, as a nurse working in general practice performing minor illness first contact care, CDM, and pretty much the full range of P/N duties many of my patients report they get a high quality of care from myself and my nurse colleague. However nurses will always be viewed as the cheap alternative, and any real progression of the role is generally in our own time and often at our own expense. Sadly I feel any genuine and widespread acceptance by the "medical doctors" is a long way off.

I dont think anybody will have any problems accepting Nurses as adequately trained and for as long as GPs have been. If you want to do the talk, you gotta have done the walk. There is no other way. I hope we wont have solicitors with 500 hours of training next.

It's very reassuring to have this statement made as it does show that nurses ARE highly regarded by patients in the provision of care. Many nurses working as Nurse Practitioners/First Contact Nurses have undertaken degree level studies in addition to the time it has taken to become qualified as a nurse in the first place - that makes a total of 6 years (2 degrees) exclusive of time spent in the profession from original qualification.  Doctors may do 5 years at medical school, where they receive a lot of support from senior nursing staff as they go through their house officer roles, but nurses do actually do a lot longer with less support. It's called 'hands on' training I believe?

Of course nurses, irregardless of the qualifications they obtain, will never be accepted in the same light as doctors, nor be as well re-imbursed, but they can and do provide very high quality care and tend to build up better patient/professional relationships because they do spend more time in consultation. It is regrettable that the present Government/NHS upper echelons are more interested in targets and dictate how long a doctor should spend with each patient; and that may be the only reason doctors are poressured in to not spending as long with patients as they really want and need.