Responding to the Budget Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Professor Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said:
“The Chancellor’s tax cut is enough to cover the student loans of NHS nurses for the next four decades. The public do not back his agenda – they want the health service turned around more than they support tax reduction.
“Technology is transformative in health and care but you still need enough staff to use it yet the Chancellor did not face up to his NHS workforce plan now heading in the wrong direction. Fewer people are starting nurse courses, not more. When nursing staff are already forced to give care in corridors and treat 15 patients at a time, his productivity plan must not ask them for even more.
“A package of financial measures, including a loan forgiveness scheme for nurses working in the NHS, should have been announced to boost domestic nurse recruitment. Instead, the ground has been laid for the nursing crisis to worsen. Applications to study nursing have fallen by a quarter in two years.
“Nursing staff urgently need more people to join their ranks and they want to be fairly rewarded for their work. After a decade of real-terms pay cuts, an above inflation pay rise and additional salary top-up worth several thousand pounds is what our profession is demanding from government this year.”
