Dropping Plan B will not ease pressure on NHS, nurses warn

Nursing leaders have hit back at Boris Johnson after he announced that Plan B measures across England will be scrapped.

Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s chief executive, said the country could not rely on vaccines alone and the pressure on health services was unrelenting.

She said:

The Prime Minister’s decision to loosen the restrictions may have relieved the pressure from his backbenchers but will do nothing to relieve the pressure on the NHS.

We can’t rely on the vaccine alone when the situation is still so precariously balanced.

Time will tell whether dropping other measures when the pressure on health and social care services remains unrelenting was wise – particularly when thousands of unvaccinated nursing staff are facing the sack.

Ministers should adopt a cautious approach. The Government will regret sending the wrong signal to the public for political expediency.

With so many Covid-19 patients still in hospital, it would be very premature to conclude this wave is over. That is not what our members are telling us.