Responding to data published in the Health Service Journal which shows A&E waiting times are four times worse than official statistics, RCN Director for England, Patricia Marquis, said:
“The picture these shocking statistics paint of the crisis in A&E is even more bleak than the official one.
"With severely depleted numbers, it's hardly surprising that nursing staff are struggling to give safe and effective care in these circumstances.
"If ever there was a wake-up call for Government, this is it.
"Ministers have ignored repeatedly our warnings about the unrelenting pressure nursing have been under for far too long - surely this time they will listen.
“Staff see patients waiting in cubicles, on trollies and being treated in corridors every day and it's patients who are suffering. Ministers must invest urgently in the nursing workforce, which has seen so many leave and vacancies steadily grow. Health services need staff as well as beds."
Ends
Notes to editors
The RCN has published a report, 10 Unsustainable Pressures on the Health and Care System in England, which identified ten areas that currently demonstrate unsustainable, untenable conditions within the health and care system across England. All of these are reliant on nursing.
