Press Releases
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08/10/2026
Press Release
Corridor care entrenched as NHS heads towards winter, says RCN as record high September records nearly 100,000 instances
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “These latest figures, 14% higher than in May, show how dangerously pressured the NHS is with winter only weeks away. The prime minister has said that corridor care is a daily reality in the NHS and politicians have let down staff across health and social care. He is right and now his government must deliver the investment in the nursing workforce, and in our health and care system, needed to eradicate this practice."
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06/10/2026
Press Release
'Inhumane' waiting lists for children store up problems for long-term, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "The fact that children are routinely waiting over a year for treatment is inhumane and only stores up problems that both the child and the health system will have to bear later down the line."
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30/09/2026
Press Release
Health secretary makes 'powerful case' for prevention, but 'elephant in the room' is nurses' pay, says Royal College of Nursing
RCN General Secretary Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “The health secretary has made a powerful case for investing in maternity and early years care. Delivering a national maternity plan and expanding community services including family hubs will be key in shifting to a prevention model. Nursing roles like health visitors and school nurses deliver vital interventions to mothers, babies and children, and will need to spearhead this drive to improve early years health."
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29/09/2026
Press Release
Our profession has seen visions for social care come and go, but this time must be different, says Royal College of Nursing in response to PM’s speech
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "The Prime Minister is right to recognise the skill and dedication of staff in social care, and to acknowledge how badly they’ve been failed, but the reality is nurse numbers alone have fallen by a third in the last decade. His vision also needs a plan, both to grow the domestic workforce and ensure reforms to immigration don’t push out dedicated migrant nursing staff."
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25/09/2026
Press Release
'Appalling' overcrowding and corridor care in A+Es must be met with significant investment, says Royal College of Nursing
Responding to a study by members of the Trainee Emergency Research Network (TERN), showing overcrowding and corridor care increase the risk of death in patients, Professor Nicola Ranger said that the appalling situation must be met head on with immediate and significant investment.
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22/09/2026
Press Release
Patients coming to harm ‘on a daily basis’, as new report warns England’s NHS short of tens of thousands more nurses than advertised
Nursing leader Professor Nicola Ranger says the new analysis from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is "more undeniable evidence" about the link between registered nurse numbers and patient safety.
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18/09/2026
Press Release
3 in 4 nursing staff say government not doing enough to protect services from climate change, as devastating testimony shows harm done to patients this summer
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "Staff did everything they could in record-breaking temperatures to keep patients safe and comfortable, but they were fighting a losing battle in buildings which often lack even the most basic cooling facilities. It's been incredibly traumatic."
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16/09/2026
Press Release
Home Secretary’s proposed immigration reforms ‘entirely incompatible’ with ambitions for a National Care Service, warns RCN
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: "Migrant nursing staff hold our health and care system together and have built lives in our country and become part of our communities. The Home Secretary's proposals would amount to a betrayal by reneging on our commitment to them because it’s politically convenient and would make the UK a significant outlier internationally."
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15/09/2026
Press Release
Royal College of Nursing response to the Thirlwall Inquiry report
RCN chief nursing officer Lynn Woolsey said: "The legacy of this inquiry must be safer neonatal services not just at the Countess of Chester, but everywhere.”
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10/09/2026
Press Release
Corridor care has become completely normalised at an extraordinary pace, says Royal College of Nursing in response to latest NHS England corridor care data
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said: “These shocking figures demonstrate the extraordinary pace at which corridor care has become completely normalised in the NHS. This unsafe, undignified and unacceptable care should never have been tolerated in winter, let alone become so widespread during the summer months."
Page last updated - 02/06/2026
