Responding to the British Social Attitudes Survey on public satisfaction with the NHS, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:

“Public satisfaction with the NHS has sunk to a new low and this will come as little surprise to nursing staff who always want to be able to give outstanding care to those they look after. Sadly, however, every day they are left to treat patients in unsafe and undignified conditions.

“Nursing staff are the key to providing the care patients deserve and ministers cannot dismiss this as a blip or think they can turn this around without investing in the nursing profession. When the public says there are not enough nursing staff, it should send a powerful message into the heart of Westminster.

“One way to turn public satisfaction around is to invest in the value of the nursing profession whilst investing in nursing pay. Until there is a recognition of the value of the nursing workforce, the public satisfaction will continue to fall and plans for the future of the NHS will not succeed.”

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