Responding to comments made by leadership contender Rishi Sunak on the NHS in an interview in the Sunday Telegraph, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said:
“The first NHS funding commitment any would-be prime minister needs to make is to pay healthcare staff – including nurses and nursing support workers – fairly.
“Nursing staff are the backbone of the NHS and yet have endured a decade of real-terms pay cuts, leaving them no choice but to consider industrial action.
"We will be balloting our members and public support is already growing.
“The next prime minister must urgently change course. This award leaves an experienced nurse over £1,000 worse off in real-terms. The solution to years of underinvestment in nursing to is reverse it. A lifetime of service must never mean a lifetime of poverty.”
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