Responding to the announcement of Thérèse Coffey being appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said:
“Ms Coffey must buck the trend of her predecessors and listen to nursing staff. Our ask for professional and personal support cannot afford to fall on deaf ears - doing the right thing by nurses is the right thing by patients too.
“The workforce crisis cannot be the elephant in the room any longer. Politicians skirt around the issue but, without enough staff, new promises will not be deliverable.
“A simple way to recruit and retain nursing staff - and to keep patients safe - is to pay them fairly for the invaluable work they do. Next week we will post strike ballot papers to 300,000 nursing staff across the UK. After many years of underinvestment, they are standing up for patients and themselves."
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