Responding to the appointment of Yvette Cooper as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said:

“I welcome the appointment of Yvette Cooper to her role as the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and look forward to working with her. From her time at the Foreign Office, she will be used to dealing with big challenges and on her first day in the job she will find there is no shortage of them in health and care. Corridor care is rife across hospitals, people are struggling to access care in out in the community and mental health services are overwhelmed. As the performance of the NHS stutters, she will soon see the size of the job.

“Top of her agenda must be delivering on nursing pay reform that has been so neglected for decades. This cannot stand any longer if she is to get the NHS back on track and fix adult social care. This is a golden opportunity to invest in nursing, to modernise an outdated NHS pay structure, make nursing a more attractive career and build a workforce that can finally deliver the care patients deserve.

“Nursing staff see every day how patients are being failed and they’re hungry for change, standing ready with the solutions to help deliver it. Central to the new secretary of state's success will be tackling a workforce crisis caused by sustained underinvestment."

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