Responding to the Global State of Patient Safety 2025 report, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:

“If the UK wants to lift itself up this table and avoid thousands of premature deaths, then ministers must finally recognise the link between safe nurse staffing levels and patient mortality. This report is right to call for proper workforce planning to meet patient need and its ambitions are backed up by countless research showing that more registered nurses equal better patient outcomes.

“The consequences of the failure to deliver detailed, fully funded workforce plans are evident across every NHS setting, with patient needs regularly going unmet and care standards collapsing. This is especially true in community and district nursing where early intervention can have the greatest impact in preventing ill health. 

“When the author of the government's own investigation into NHS performance says that proper workforce planning is needed, ministers must start listening. That starts with new investment in nursing to bring the UK up the league table and provide health and care services that improve patient outcomes and extend life. Failure to act now will see the UK relegated further down the table.”

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