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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.

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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.

Read more:
Health secretary ‘refuses to negotiate on pay’
Nurses ‘working equivalent of one day a week for nothing’

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

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.

As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.

“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.

“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”

Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.

“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”

But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.

More on Assisted Dying

“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”

Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.

“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”

Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”

Read more:
Why is assisted dying so controversial and where is it legal?
UK on ‘slippery slope’ Justice Minister says ahead of vote

On Friday, the government is set to debate the issue before voting on it. Sophie hopes they’ll back the proposal.

“It should be my choice to be able to have a compassionate death,” she says.

There has been much debate about the bill since details about how it would work were published earlier this month.

On Friday, former prime minister Gordon Brown became the latest senior political figure to share his opinion on the matter, coming out as against the legalisation of assisted dying, based on his experience of his own daughter’s death.

Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.

Lucy Webster, disability rights advocate
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Lucy Webster

“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.

Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.

Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.

“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.

The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.

“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”

Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.

Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School
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Julian Hughes

“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”

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Young people to lose benefits if they refuse work and training, says minister

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Young people to lose benefits if they refuse work and training, says minister

Young people will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities, a minister has said ahead of announcing measures to cut the welfare bill.

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that “conditions” will be attached to new skills opportunities the government intends to create.

Politics live: MP proposing assisted dying bill responds to claims it’s a ‘slippery slope’

With a record number of young people currently unemployed, Labour promised in its manifesto a “youth guarantee” for 18-21 year olds to have access to training, an apprenticeship, or support to find work.

“If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits,” Ms Kendall said.

“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up.”

The Labour government has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3bn over five years.

More on Benefits

The Public Accounts Committee's report says the DWP has relatively few programmes that directly target people from ethnic minority backgrounds

Ms Kendall said her party will bring in its “own reforms” to achieve that target, though did not elaborate further.

The Conservatives had planned to change work capability rules to tighten eligibility, so around 400,000 more people signed off sick long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.

Asked whether these people would ultimately be denied their current benefits under Labour’s plans, Ms Kendall told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme.

“But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”

The latest official forecasts published by the government show the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.

Last year there were just over three million claimants.

Ms Kendall will launch proposals on Tuesday designed to “get Britain working” amid concerns about the soaring unemployment rate.

Read More:
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Surprise fall in retail sales a sign economy is slowing

Thousands of jobs to go at Bosch

The white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying.

Ministers are also looking at a subsidised jobs scheme, Sky News revealed last week.

The UK remains the only G7 country that has higher levels of economic inactivity now than before the pandemic.

Ms Kendall said the reasons are “complex” and include the fact that the UK is an older and sicker nation.

Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, she said that while some people may be “self-diagnosing” themselves with mental health issues it is a “genuine problem”.

“There’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work.

“I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”

Ms Kendall’s language was softer than Sir Keir Starmer, who this weekend promised a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system” .

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he said: “Make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”

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Man fighting for his life after stabbing on Westminster Bridge

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Man fighting for his life after stabbing on Westminster Bridge

A man is fighting for his life after a stabbing on Westminster Bridge, police have said.

Officers were called to the scene at around 10.45am on Sunday to reports of a fight and found a man with a stab injury. He was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.
Image:
Westminster Bridge is closed with investigations ongoing.

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and another has been arrested on suspicion of affray.

Two of those arrested were taken to hospital with minor facial injuries, the Met Police said.

It is understood the incident is not being treated as terror-related.

The road remains closed, with the police investigation ongoing.

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