Responding to the health secretary's announcement of 'Our Plan for Patients', RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said:
"Nursing staff provide the majority of patient care and we're concerned that, when it comes to making care safer, this announcement appears to be lacking.
“There is a staffing crisis in an overloaded system and it is putting patients at risk. Another callout for volunteers will look panicked and ill-considered.
“The health secretary’s plan is also at odds with recent research that found the best way to improve patient satisfaction with GP care is to train up nurses you already have, such as in diabetes prevention.
“Yet, the basic issue, which these plans do not address, is that we don’t have enough nursing staff. This is a key driver behind our strike ballot which now opens in early October.
“Many years of underfunding have brought nursing to crisis point, with record numbers of unfilled nurse posts and 25,000 leaving the profession in the last year alone.
“Urgent investment is needed including fair pay and measures to boost the domestic workforce, such as funding tuition fees. Paying nursing fairly is a simple way to recruit and retain more of them.”
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