Practices were warned to expect extra pressures today as nurses began their first ever national strike.

Emergency and urgent services in hospitals are due to be maintained but NHS 111 is on stand by for a surge in calls.

Nurses in dozens of hospitals are on strike today and ambulance staff begin strikes next week. Trainee doctors have are voting on taking their own action next year although midwives in England failed to reach the turnout threshold in a ballot on strike action.
53 NHS trusts in England and most services in Wales and Northern Ireland will be affected by the action. The RCN has agreed a range of emergency and urgent services that will not be affected.

NHS England said patients should attend appointments unless contacted to be told they are cancelled. It promised that the 111 services would provide support in situations that are not life-threatening.

The Royal College of Nursing said it was proceeding with the strike “with a very heavy heart”.

General secretary Pat Cullen said: “Nurses are not relishing this, we are acting with a very heavy heart. It has been a difficult decision taken by hundreds of thousands who begin to remove their labour from tomorrow in a bid to be heard, recognised and valued. It is a tragic first for nursing, the RCN and the NHS. Nursing staff on picket lines is a sign of failure on the part of governments. Our commitment to patients and safe care means that vital services are kept running. The scaremongering we have seen did upset some but also demonstrated the disrespect afforded to nurses for raising their voice. My plea to patients tonight is to know that this strike is for you too – it’s about waiting lists, treatments that are cancelled year-round and the very future of the NHS.”

In the House of Commons yesterday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that nurses do “incredible work”.

He added: “It is worth putting on record exactly what we have done for our nurses: last year, when everyone else in the public sector had a public sector pay freeze, the nurses received a 3% pay rise. When the Royal College of Nursing asked for more in-work training, we gave every nurse and midwife a £1,000 training budget, and when they asked for nurses’ bursaries, we made sure that every nursing student received a £5,000 grant. That is because we do work constructively, and we will continue to back our nurses.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer told him: “We have never seen a nurses strike like this before. They have been forced into it, because the Government have broken the health system. Ask anyone in the NHS, and they will tell you that they do not have enough staff — 133,000 vacancies — and there is an obvious solution: scrap the non-dom status and use the money to bring through the next generation of doctors and nurses.”

Last night NHS medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “NHS teams have worked and continue to work hard to minimise disruption from strikes due to take place this month but there will be disruption to services. While patients may see different types of staff striking on different days, or their local NHS services impacted by strikes on some days but not others, the things patients should do to access NHS care remain the same. People must call 999 in any life-threatening emergency during strikes as well as attending pre-booked appointments as planned unless they have been contacted by their local NHS for it to be rearranged.”