Responding to the chancellor's Budget speech, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said:

"This Budget treats health and care as something of an afterthought rather than gripping the crisis staff are facing. It is the largest part of government expenditure and a priority for voters and taxpayers so deserved a more central role today. Digital innovation and AI has the potential to release time for nursing professionals weighed down by admin, but it cannot make up for growing the nursing workforce and safety must be at the heart of its deployment. A minor positive announcement on prevention aside, this Budget hasn’t delivered the meaningful change our profession has been crying out for.

"Nurse shortages are undermining the government's health ambitions and a failure to invest in our profession holds back our economy. Poor health increases costs for the NHS and keeps people out of work. Nursing is key to turning this around. Today we needed new measures to grow the workforce and make nursing a more attractive career through better pay and forgiving the student loans of those who commit to working in the NHS or social care. There is no hope in half measures and investment in nursing will pay for itself over again."

Ends 

Notes to editors