Responding to the Health and Social Care Committee report on adult social care, RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:

“This report should act as an urgent wake-up call for the government that waiting for the conclusion of the current review into adult social care in England is not an option.

“The result of years of inaction has damaged care for vulnerable people, added pressure to the NHS, and created unsustainable demands on a depleted nursing workforce. The report highlights our evidence to the Committee on the lack of investment in the district nursing workforce adding pressures on A&E.

“Ministers must now recognise that without investing in social care nursing staff, recruitment and retention issues will only worsen. Not acting now will make any future recommendations undeliverable and leave some of the most vulnerable without the care they need.”

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