Responding to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s update on the Government’s economic plans, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen, said:
“The Chancellor’s announcement today will have done nothing to reassure nursing that it will get the investment it so desperately needs.
“He said at the weekend that all Government departments will have to make efficiency savings, which would include health and care.
“In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and worsening financial hardship for underpaid nursing staff, any cuts to government spending, whether directly to health and care or not, will negatively impact those staff and their patients.
“The nursing workforce crisis is undermining safe patient care and with many choosing to leave the profession for better-paid jobs elsewhere, the need to pay a demoralised and unvalued profession fairly could not be more pressing.
“These considerations should be uppermost in the Chancellor’s mind as he grapples with current economic crises.”
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