Press Releases
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11/04/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to the latest NHS England waiting list data
Patricia Marquis, Executive Director of RCN England, said: “More than a year since the pledge was made to cut waiting lists, millions of patients are still suffering in pain and distress. Whichever way you count the numbers, the prime minister’s promise is colliding with the reality of an understaffed and under-resourced NHS. This is far from ‘mission accomplished."
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11/04/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to University of Bath report on NHS staff retention
Patricia Marquis, Executive Director of RCN England said: “This report tells the story of an NHS workforce at the end of its tether. Devastating nursing shortages are leaving staff burnt out and demoralised, unable to provide the level of care they want to. When nurses are the least likely of all NHS staff to recommend a career in the health service, ministers should sit up and listen."
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08/04/2024
Press Release
New pay structure can deliver ‘fresh start’ for nursing, RCN tells government
Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive said: “Nursing is not a calling. Or a vocation. Or ‘women’s work’. We are a profession; we are experts; we are leaders. There is an art and a science to what we do."
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08/04/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to Unison survey showing widespread sexual harassment of NHS staff
RCN Chief Nurse Professor Nicola Ranger said: “These figures paint an incredibly disturbing picture. Nursing staff should be able to come to work and expect the NHS to be a safe place - and not face the risk of assault, harassment, or abuse."
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04/04/2024
Press Release
Nursing union slams prime minister’s 'misleading and inaccurate' comments on nursing pay
Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said: "Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members rejected the government’s pay offer last year, an offer that was the lowest in the public sector. We remain in a formal trade dispute over pay. Our profession will be greatly angered hearing your comments which sought to take credit for a pay offer that was not accepted."
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01/04/2024
Press Release
Majority of voters urge government to deliver above inflation pay rise for NHS nursing staff
Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said: “The public trusts our profession more than any other and they overwhelmingly agree that nursing staff deserve a proper pay rise. Ministers who claim to be committed to the public’s priorities should now act upon them."
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01/04/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine showing scale of excess deaths caused by long waits in NHS emergency departments
Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive said: “This crisis is taking lives and nursing staff in England’s hospitals are forced to witness it every shift. Go into any hospital, the corridors and cupboards are packed with patients – care is not only undignified but fatally unsafe. One nurse told me a lady had died on a trolley in a corridor and it went unnoticed far too long – that is the current state of our health service."
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27/03/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to the British Social Attitudes Survey on public satisfaction with the NHS
Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive said: "Nursing staff will respond with mixed emotion today – great sorrow that we have sunk this low and hope that the public shares their view that ‘enough is enough’. It did not have to be this way and it did not start with the pandemic either."
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26/03/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to the Institute for Fiscal Studies report 'Recent trends in public sector pay'
Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive said: “This report should be essential reading for government ministers. With repeated below-inflation pay awards, and the lowest pay deal in the entire public sector last year, ministers exposed nursing staff to a brutal cost of living crisis."
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25/03/2024
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing responds to an announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care about one-off payments for more healthcare workers
RCN Director for England Patricia Marquis said: “After a year of campaigning, this progress is a huge leap forward. They deliver NHS care and deserve the same treatment."
Page last updated - 22/03/2024
