Press Releases
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06/11/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to the new Mental Health Bill being introduced in Parliament
RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey, said: “Modernising the Mental Health Act is welcome, but these long overdue reforms won’t be successful unless we address the crisis in the workforce. A third of all nursing vacancies are in mental health services, meaning vulnerable people are routinely denied access to timely and appropriate care."
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06/11/2024
Press Release
No NHS modernisation without social care investment, Royal College of Nursing says
RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said “Overstretched staff working in social care have been sounding the alarm for years, but successive governments have failed to listen."
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04/11/2024
Press Release
Tuition fee rise will 'make a bad situation worse', says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “As student nurse numbers collapse in every English region, ministers decide to make a bad situation worse. Today’s announcement will discourage more people from joining the profession. That means fewer highly-skilled staff on wards and in communities. That is bad news for patient care and undermines the government’s very own NHS reforms."
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04/11/2024
Press Release
RCN members reject Welsh government’s inadequate NHS pay award
An overwhelming 72% of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members working in the NHS in Wales who took part in the consultation voted to reject the Welsh government's proposed 5.5% pay increase for 2024/25.
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30/10/2024
Press Release
Crisis in nursing unresolved after today's Budget, Royal College of Nursing says
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “The Chancellor’s task was difficult, but the crisis in nursing remains unresolved after today’s Budget. Thousands of staff continue to leave the profession, whilst new nurse numbers have collapsed in every English region. We are a safety-critical profession, worthy of infrastructure-style investment."
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28/10/2024
Press Release
New nurse numbers collapsing in every English region, as RCN warns Government’s 10 Year Plan at risk
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “The prospect of huge debt and lack of financial support is putting off the nurses of the future, threatening to leave patients without the highly trained nursing professionals they desperately need."
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25/10/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to CQC’s annual State of Care report
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. "
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24/10/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to HSSIB report on ‘the delivery of safe and therapeutic care to adults in mental health inpatient settings’
Stephen Jones, UK Head of Nursing Practice at the Royal College of Nursing said: “The long-term failure to invest in mental health nursing is having a direct and deeply worrying impact on those most in need of care."
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23/10/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to figures showing over one million 12-hour A&E waits this year
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “Dangerously long waits have become normalised in our NHS, whilst nursing staff are forced to deliver unsafe care in corridors. They are overworked, understaffed and professionally demoralised. The government needs to step in ahead of winter and prevent this patient safety crisis worsening."
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21/10/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to launch of government’s NHS 10 Year Plan engagement exercise
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “Nursing staff deliver the vast majority of care in the NHS and they know better than anyone how to make services better for patients. The government’s ambitions are the right ones, but to work they will require the expertise of our profession."
Page last updated - 21/02/2025