Press Releases
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28/10/2026
Press Release
Health Secretary right to listen to nursing staff and scrap Healthwatch England abolition, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN Director of Policy Amber Jabbal, said: “The Health Secretary has rightfully listened to the concerns of nursing staff and chosen to scrap the abolition of Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch and instead focus on ensuring it plays a more influential role."
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28/10/2026
Press Release
Budget treats health as an 'afterthought', says Royal College of Nursing
Professor Nicola Ranger said the Budget treats health and care as something of an afterthought rather than gripping the crisis staff are facing.
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27/10/2026
Press Release
Inequalities laid out in CQC report show just how badly children and young people are being failed, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said this report shows just how badly children and young people are being failed, with inequal access to services driving long waits and poorer health outcomes
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23/10/2026
Press Release
New report into excess heat deaths shows ‘devastating human cost’ of climate change and impossible job facing nursing staff, says Royal College of Nursing
Royal College of Nursing Professional Lead for sustainability Rose Gallagher said: “Extreme weather conditions caused by climate change are here to stay and the impact on health cannot continue to be ignored."
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22/10/2026
Press Release
Nurses’ debt outstrips doctors’ despite shorter courses and far lower earnings, as nursing union calls for action to tackle ‘deep injustice’
Nurses are now graduating with more student debt than doctors, new analysis reveals, despite far shorter courses and nurses earning hundreds of thousands of pounds less over their careers.
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20/10/2026
Press Release
Covid Inquiry findings 'damning assessment' of how social care was so badly failed, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “The clearest sign the sector would fail the test of another pandemic is in the thousands unable to be discharged from hospitals every day. The legacy of this inquiry must be that we are better prepared, with new investment in workforce and services coming now, not when it’s too late.”
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19/10/2026
Press Release
Proposed 2.4% NHS pay award would be a betrayal of nursing staff, says RCN
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “A proposed pay award of 2.4% is on course to be below inflation and would be a betrayal of nursing staff in our NHS. It would see living standards fall for the largest workforce in the health service, doing nothing to address more than a decade of collapsing real terms pay. Our hundreds of thousands of members working in the health service will be furious today, and they are right to be."
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18/10/2026
Press Release
The nursing workforce needed to deliver these services goes into winter already running on empty and short of staff, says Royal College of Nursing
Responding to the Health Secretary’s winter funding announcement, Executive Director of RCN, Patricia Marquis said: “Whilst this announcement will help to boost short-term capacity it is just another sticking plaster on a system that is at breaking point."
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14/10/2026
Press Release
Nurse numbers are still way behind what they were a decade ago meaning a fully funded plan to improve recruitment and retention is desperately needed, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: "Another small increase in the number of registered nurses working in social care is a step in the right direction, but shockingly high turnover means we are losing expert nurses almost as fast as we are recruiting them."
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08/10/2026
Press Release
Corridor care entrenched as NHS heads towards winter, says RCN as record high September records nearly 100,000 instances
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “These latest figures, 14% higher than in May, show how dangerously pressured the NHS is with winter only weeks away. The prime minister has said that corridor care is a daily reality in the NHS and politicians have let down staff across health and social care. He is right and now his government must deliver the investment in the nursing workforce, and in our health and care system, needed to eradicate this practice."
Page last updated - 02/06/2026
