Responding to CQC’s State of Care report, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:
“This broad and damning report supports the view of Ministers that the NHS is broken. Taking responsibility for fixing it will be tough but cannot start soon enough. The government’s Budget in under a week is the opportunity for ministers to show serious action is planned.
“At the heart of these problems is an understaffed nursing workforce, faced with too few people entering the profession and too many skilled staff leaving. The finding by inspectors of an alarming decline in the number of health visitors, vital for delivering preventative services, is indicative of a system which is only storing up more health problems in the future.
“Fit-for-purpose health and care services also need a fit-for-purpose regulator and inspection regime - the journey to both of these is needed urgently. As the government consults on the future of the NHS, a crisis is already unfolding and investment in nursing couldn’t come soon enough.”
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Notes to editors
CQC - The state of health care and adult social care in England 2023/24
