Responding to the Covid Inquiry Module 3 report which found that health services were ill-prepared and that staff shortages contributed to the NHS becoming ‘overwhelmed’,

RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger said:

“These findings must mark a moment in time - never again can nursing and the public be failed like this. Our profession was sent to fight a deadly virus short of tens of thousands of nurses, while inadequate protection and ineffectual guidance led to devastating outbreaks among staff. It’s clear that all these failings caused services, such as critical care, to become quickly overwhelmed and unable to provide surge capacity. That significantly undermined the pandemic response and cost lives. This will live long in the memory of our profession.

"The government has to grab these recommendations and apply them not only to the hypothetical next pandemic, but the crisis that still engulfs our health system. The shortage of beds and staff leaves people tonight lining corridors without treatment, too often dying there.

“Nursing staff were the constant presence in every setting during the pandemic and went through a level of trauma which isn’t captured by this report. They faced an unprecedented scale of death and saw their own colleagues die, some in the very same places they worked. Many isolated from their entire families to continue saving lives. Their contribution and sacrifice must never be forgotten.

“The report is right to call for better support for healthcare staff at the next pandemic, but we cannot forget those left behind from the last one. Today, ministers must agree to formally recognise long COVID as an industrial disease and deliver proper financial support to those who can no longer work.

“The most important legacy of this inquiry must be to ensure our health and care services are not devastated by the next national emergency. However, the sad reality is that it will be impossible to increase capacity in hospitals while the nursing workforce remains so severely depleted. It should cause great alarm that this report finds the NHS workforce is in such a state that it may not be able to work under the conditions of another pandemic. The time to invest in and listen to nursing is now, if we are to save lives in the future.”

ENDS