Nurses' chief faces no-confidence vote

Beverly Malone, the first non-British general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, is to face a vote of no-confidence from members unhappy with aspects of her short tenure as leader of the country's main nurses' union.

Ms Malone, an American academic who was appointed last April, stands accused of mismanagement, making unreasonable pay demands and arranging preferential NHS treatment for her mother, a US citizen.

A faction of the RCN has mounted a petition asking for an extraordinary general meeting so its council can explain the expenditure, accounts, governance and restructuring of the college under Ms Malone's tenure.

They are also questioning the level of Ms Malone's salary, understood to amount to about £200,000 a year, amid claims she has called for a rise this year.

The campaign against Ms Malone gained further momentum after revelations that, as leader of the avowedly non-partisan RCN, she attended a Labour fund-raising event.

Peggy Pryer, of the Canterbury RCN branch, who has mounted the petition, said Ms Malone's reorganisation plans raised serious worries about her management style.

She said: "We are very concerned about what is going on within the RCN. She should be fighting for better nurses' pay but she is not fighting for our cause."

Mrs Pryer said Ms Malone's attendance at the Labour Party event made it appear as if she was "in bed with New Labour".

She was also critical of Ms Malone's mother receiving NHS treatment for a non-urgent cataract operation which she is entitled to as she is applying for residence in the UK. She said: "We have people waiting for 18 months for cataract operations and Ms Malone's mother comes here and gets one when she had only been in the country for three months."

Dame June Clarke, a former president of the RCN, said she had backed Ms Malone's appointment and continued to support her because she had much to offer the RCN.

But she added: "She is making errors of judgement and that either means she is being poorly advised or isn't listening to advice being given to her. She is misreading the culture she is in. The RCN is a membership organisation in which members determine what is done through the elected council."

Any vote of no confidence should therefore be directed at the council, not the general secretary, as Ms Malone was answerable to the council, she suggested.

The RCN responded to the criticisms through a statement saying the general secretary's salary was set in the same way as other senior executives at the RCN.

"It is discussed by the RCN's remuneration committee who make a recommendation to the full RCN Council – the governing body of elected RCN members – for a final decision," the statement said.

"The RCN's accounts are currently being finalised. They will be put before the RCN Council in July and full sets of accounts will be available to RCN members once they have been approved."

The RCN insisted it was an open and politically impartial organisation. It said Ms Malone was invited to the Labour Party fund-raising event by a third party.

"She attended for the early part of the reception and then left before dinner. No donation was made by her," it said.

On the issue of Ms Malone's mother, the RCN said "patient confidentiality must come first and should always be respected, regardless of who the patient is".

"[Ms] Malone's mother is living in the UK and has received treatment under normal guidelines relating to NHS treatment," it said.

Responding to criticisms of the reorganisation plans, the RCN said the aim was "to achieve better services and a greater focus on members' needs and priorities".