Press Releases
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17/11/2025
Press Release
Working in understaffed services is making nurses sick, as new research shows staff suffering nightmares and panic attacks
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “Nursing staff are being driven to ill health from working in understaffed and under resourced services. And what’s worse, many feel they cannot take time off for fear of leaving their colleagues at the mercy of brutal pressures."
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13/11/2025
Press Release
Fall in waiting lists positive but won’t spare nursing staff disastrous NHS winter as 12hr+ waits surge, says Royal College of Nursing
Executive Director of RCN England Patricia Marquis said: "Tortuous waits of 12 hrs or longer are a clear sign of corridor care and they are skyrocketing, with tens of thousands more A&E attendances than this time last year."
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12/11/2025
Press Release
'False economy' to make ICB experts redundant, says RCN in response to the Health Secretary on NHS reforms
Executive Director of RCN England Patricia Marquis said: “Dismantling years of work takes thought and planning, but the government and NHS England have failed to appreciate the scale of the risk or to plan to mitigate these risks."
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11/11/2025
Press Release
Nursing staff 'faced with appalling hatred and intimidation', says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:. "A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function."
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10/11/2025
Press Release
Emergency departments now ‘places of prolonged and unnecessary suffering’, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:. "It breaks the hearts of nursing staff and doctors that patients are lining corridors, waiting hours to be seen. But the truth is staff face an impossible task, with too few of them and demand surging."
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31/10/2025
Press Release
Shocking accounts of corridor care endured by elderly a 'moral stain', says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said corridor care is a "moral stain" on the health service.
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31/10/2025
Press Release
State of district nursing workforce a ‘reality check’ for government’s NHS reforms, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “This report shows the value of district nursing to the government’s ambitions, but also how far this workforce has been allowed to fall. Numbers are half what they were over a decade ago, all while demand has risen and is set to continue to rise."
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30/10/2025
Press Release
Government risks insulting nursing staff all over again with 2.5% pay offer, says Royal College of Nursing
Responding to the government’s evidence submitted to the NHS Pay Review Body (PRB), RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “Three months after we rejected a higher amount, and with inflation rising, the government risks insulting NHS staff all over again. With too many leaving nursing and too few joining, we need urgent and fundamental pay reform, not derisory pay deals that fail to cover living costs."
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27/10/2025
Press Release
Ethnic minority nursing staff report shocking racist abuse at work, as calls to RCN advice line surge by 55%
Responding to the latest findings from the RCN’s Advice Line, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “These racist incidents are absolutely disgusting, and it is a mark of shame that they are rising like this across health and care services. Every single ethnic minority nursing professional deserves to go to work without fear of being abused and employers have a legal duty to ensure workplaces are safe."
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24/10/2025
Press Release
Report sends a stark reminder of challenges facing government health reforms
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “This crisis has been years in the making, but ministers cannot waste time in solving it. Only new investment to grow the nursing workforce, particularly in community settings, will ease pressures on hospitals, improve care for patients and ensure the government’s reforms are delivered safely.”
Page last updated - 21/02/2025
