Modern Nursing

Today the media reports that David Cameron has ordered that nurses should make hourly rounds of the hospital wards and ensure that all their patients were comfortable. (Telegraph report here).
I've just returned from an unwilling visit to Tesco, in my capacity as bag-carrier and driver, and as I'm not involved in the selection of fresh produce, I happened to notice that an employee was doing the rounds of the fresh fruit and vegetables, checking the produce and removing odds and ends to a box. At the end of the procedure he initialled a check sheet (headed "freshness check") at the end of the aisle, and wheeled away those items which didn't pass muster.
I had a vision of this happening in the modern David Cameron hospitals. A nurse wanders round the ward looking at patients, and after signing a check sheet at the end of the ward, wheels away on a trolley any patients that had failed the "freshness check".

OK, I've got a warped sense of humour, but I do wonder what happened to the good old fashioned Matron, and why Cameron feels that it necessary to instruct nurses to do what should be routine in any caring environment. Perhaps he would like to tell the police to patrol the streets and look for crime.