Responding to the Chancellor's announcement of 'one stop shops' as part of the Neighbourhood Health Service and funding to upgrade NHS tech, Executive Director of RCN England, Patricia Marquis, said:
“The Chancellor has rightly identified nursing staff as the expert clinicians to lead these 'one stop shops', which can help deliver more timely interventions closer to home, easing pressures on hospitals and improving outcomes.
"The very nurses crucial to these centres are likely to be those already working out in the community, including district nurses and health visitors, but their numbers have collapsed by thousands in the last decade or more. We now need to see a detailed and fully-funded plan to grow our nursing workforce, especially in community roles.
"Patients and the government get best value for money when nursing staff are freed up from unnecessary admin and empowered to provide high-quality person-centred care. Funding to upgrade tech across the NHS estate is the right move, but that's only half the job. They must now ensure there is a plan for training staff up on new systems."
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