Nurses’ strike: How A&E and other NHS services will be impacted – and which hospitals are affected
NHS nurses are striking today in a dispute with the government over pay and patient safety.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will take industrial action on 15 December and 20 December across England, Wales and Northern Ireland for the first time in the union’s 106-year history.
Strikes by ambulance staff and some NHS workers in Scotland were called off after members of two unions voted to accept the Scottish government’s most recent pay deal.
Share your NHS experience – how are the strikes affecting you?
What services will still be provided?
The RCN has provided a list of areas which will be “exempt from the strike action”.
These are chemotherapy, dialysis, paediatric A&E, critical care units such as intensive care and high dependency, and neonatal and paediatric intensive care.
Other services outside of these “may be reduced” to a Christmas Day or night-duty level.
Following concerns by chief nurses about patient safety, the RCN has confirmed cancer patients will get emergency and clinically urgent surgery on strike days.
Emergency cancer services will be protected – including for those with specific needs due to chemotherapy.
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Protections have also been agreed for mental health and learning disability and autism services as part of an emergency response.
NHS community teams will provide palliative care and clinically urgent interventions, such as insulin – while in-patient areas will see night-duty staffing.
The head of the NHS Confederation said trade unions are committed to maintaining emergency and critical care services, and he was “reasonably confident that we won’t see severe patient harm”.
Matthew Taylor, who speaks for healthcare systems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, added patients can expect a bank holiday-level of service in hospitals during the industrial action.
What if you need to go to A&E?
“Front-door” urgent care assessment and admission units – including A&E – will see Christmas Day-level staffing.
The NHS says emergency care will continue to be available across the country, and it is “really important” people come forward as normal in an “emergency or in life-threatening cases”.
Paediatric A&E is exempt from the strikes.
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Strikes in the UK – which sectors are affected?
Anyone needing urgent care should use NHS111 online or dial 111 to be assessed, the NHS says.
But if someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk, emergency care should be sought in the normal way by calling 999 or attending A&E.
What if you have a hospital appointment scheduled?
Patients are being advised to attend as planned – unless the NHS provider has contacted them to reschedule.
Even if the hospital trust is affected by strikes, people should attend appointments unless instructed otherwise.
Patients will have been contacted by letter or phone call and offered a new date if their appointment needs to be rescheduled.
Will GP services be available?
Yes – GP services will be running as normal. People should attend their scheduled appointments.
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Govt ‘turns back on nurses’
What services will be directly hit?
There is expected to be widespread disruption to planned care, such as non-emergency operations and outpatient appointments.
Thousands of appointments and operations will need to be rescheduled as they are unlikely to be carried out on the day of action.
Up to 100,000 nurses are estimated to be joining the strike action, which will last for 12 hours on each day.
What other issues have been raised over patient care?
Dame Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, and her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, have written to the RCN general secretary Pat Cullen regarding a series of concerns about safety.
They said chemotherapy is being rescheduled from the strike days at some hospitals – despite the union agreeing it would be exempt nationally.
But an RCN spokesperson said there will be derogation for emergency cancer services, adding: “Cancer patients will get emergency and clinically urgent surgery, it is not in doubt.”
Where will the strikes take place?
Not every hospital in the country will be affected by the strike action – but here is a list of those where strikes are scheduled:
England
East Midlands:
• Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB
• Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Eastern:
• Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust
• Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
• NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB
• Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
London:
• Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
• Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• NHS North Central London ICB
• Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
North West:
• Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
• Health Education England
• Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Found Trust
• Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust
• Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
• The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Found Trust
• The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust
Northern:
• Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
South East:
• Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
South West:
• Devon Partnership NHS Trust
• Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
• Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• NHS Bath, North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB (BSW Together)
• NHS Devon ICB (One Devon)
• NHS Gloucestershire ICB (One Gloucestershire)
• North Bristol NHS Trust
• Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
• Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
West Midlands:
• Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
• Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
• NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB (BSol ICB)
• The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
• Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Yorkshire and the Humber:
• Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Yorkshire & Humber NHS England
• The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Wales
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• Powys Teaching Local Health Board
• Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust Headquarters
• Hywel Dda University Health Board
• Swansea Bay University Health Board
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
• Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board
• Velindre NHS Trust
• Public Health Wales
• Health Education and Improvement Wales Health Authority
• NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership
• Digital Health and Care Wales
Northern Ireland
• Northern Ireland Practice and Education Council
• Southern Health and Social Care Trust
• Western Health and Social Care Trust
• Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
• Business Services Organisation
• Regulation & Quality Improvement Authority
• Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service
• Public Health Agency
• Northern Health and Social Care Trust
• South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
• Northern Ireland Ambulance Service
Counter-terrorism police are investigating after an incident involving a crossbow and a firearm left two women injured in Leeds.
Police were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday to reports of a “serious incident involving a man seen with weapons”, West Yorkshire Police said.
Officers arrived at the scene to find two women injured – and a 38-year-old man with a self-inflicted injury. All three were taken to hospital, with the man held under arrest, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“Two weapons have been recovered from the scene, which were a crossbow and a firearm,” Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.
The incident happened on the ‘Otley Run’ pub crawl, with one venue saying it was closed for the evening due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Officers guard one of the crime scenes
Officers inside the cordon in Leeds
Counter Terrorism Policing’s statement added: “Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Counter Terrorism Policing North East have taken responsibility for leading the investigation with the support of West Yorkshire Police.
“Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “serious violent incident” and said she was being kept updated by police.
“Thank you to the police and emergency services for their swift response,” she said. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those affected by this attack.”
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Wrexham AFC have been promoted for the third season in a row.
The North Wales-based side has gone from the National League to the Championship in just three seasons, under its Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Wrexham were second in the table and had a run of eight games unbeaten ahead of their match against Charlton Athletic on Saturday, which they won 3-0.
Wrexham’s James McClean lifts the League One trophy. Pic: PA
Wrexham’s Dan Scarr celebrates with the fans on the pitch after Wrexham won promotion to the Championship. Pic: PA
It is the first time any club has been promoted for three consecutive seasons within the top five tiers of English football.
The third oldest association football club in the world, Wrexham AFC was bought by Reynolds and McElhenney in 2020, and has since been the subject of a Disney+ documentary, Welcome To Wrexham.
Reynolds, wearing a Wrexham sweatshirt, and McElhenney were pictured celebrating each goal, and after the game, as the fans came onto the pitch at the SToK Cae Ras (Racecourse Ground) to celebrate the victory with the players.
Wrexham co-owners Rob McElhenney (L) and Ryan Reynolds and Ryan’s wife Blake Lively, before the match. Pic: PA
Both stars came onto the pitch after the supporters returned to the stands.
Speaking to Sky Sports, McElhenney praised those behind the scenes, referring to “so many that don’t get the credit they deserve, people who aren’t talked about”.
Reynolds said bringing success back to the club “seemed like an impossible dream” when they arrived in North Wales in 2020.
Wrexham’s Sam Smith celebrates in front of the fans after Wrexham won promotion to the Championship. Pic: PA
He put the three promotions down to “the coaching staff, the greatest dressing room” and an “all for one, one for all” attitude throughout the club, adding he was “speechless with their commitment and their emotion”.
As for the mouth-watering prospect of another promotion to the promised land of the Premier League, the pair agreed it was “for tomorrow”, before ending the interview with a joint mic-drop.
Veteran striker Steven Fletcher said, “as soon as I came to this club, I knew it was something special. We want to go again. We’ll reset in the summer, take a break and go again”.
“It has been a success.”
Just Stop Oil (JSO) insists it’s been “successful” – as its members ceremoniously hang up their orange high-vis vests during a march in central London.
Since the group formed three years ago, it’s drawn attention and criticism for its colourful, controversial protests, which ranged from disrupting sporting events to throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and climbing on gantries over the M25. It sprayed orange paint over Stonehenge, and cost police forces tens of millions of pounds.
Those days are now behind it; to the relief of many.
Read more
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77 year old JSO activist recalled to prison
As a few hundred activists marched through London on Saturday, blocking roads as they went; taxi drivers blared their horns and football fans shouted abuse from the pavement.
The PA News Agency filmed the moment a white minivan seemed to drive towards a group of protesters blocking the road.
Protesters shouted “I’m being pushed back!” to police, while the driver could be heard shouting “What about my right to get home?” to the officers gathered.
But JSO never set out to be popular. And it believes its tactics – though hated – have been successful; thanks to the new Labour government’s commitment to not issue new oil or gas exploration licences.
That’s why, it says, its ceasing direct action.
JSO hangs up its high-vis jackets in central London on Saturday
A washing line of high-vis jackets signifies JSO’s disbanding
“This moment marks the success of the JSO campaign – our demand was to end new oil and gas licences and that is now government policy.
“As a result of which four billion barrels of oil are being kept under the North Sea. The campaign has reached a natural end.”
Dr Oscar Berglund, senior lecturer in international public and social policy, disagrees that JSO is disappearing because it’s been “successful”.
He told Sky News policing strength and public perception might have more to do with it.
“They have very low levels of popularity. About 17% of the British population are kind of broadly supportive of what Just Stop Oil do. And that’s too low to recruit.
“It’s difficult to recruit members to something that is that unpopular, and then that a lot of people for good reason I think have kind of stopped believing in that kind of disruption as a means to achieve meaningful change.”
Group triggers specific new protest laws
One thing it did change is the law.
Policing commentator Graham Wettone tells us: “Obstruction of the highway, obstruction of rail networks for example, these are specific offences now.
“It’s given the police more tactics, more methods, more offences they can consider, even stopping and searching somebody who may have something to either lock themselves on or glue themselves to something.”
A JSO activist holds a picture of an imprisoned colleague
Emma Smart was held in prison for her activism with both Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.
“The high-vis might be going away,” she tells me, “but we aren’t.”
“These people aren’t going anywhere, we are still committed, dedicated, terrified by the failings of this government and governments around the world.”
JSO activists throw orange paint at van Gogh’s sunflowers
Orange smoke set off by JSO protesters at Stonehenge
She hopes for a time of reflection before it returns in a new form but says the need for climate activism is stronger than ever.
She also believes that while most people dislike JSO tactics, it still raises awareness of the cause and might even push people to more moderate campaign groups.
Just Stop Oil came behind other, similarly controversial climate campaign groups like Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion, and as it says goodbye, its disruptive methods have been seized upon by other organisations like the Pro-Palestinian Youth Justice.
The infamous Just Stop Oil orange vests might be going away, but the individual activists, their cause and campaign tactics feel here to stay.
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