Patients requiring specific care including chemotherapy will be protected from strike action following an agreement between the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) and senior nurses.
In a letter to the RCN, chief nurses laid bare concerns over patient safety during planned strikes this Thursday (December 15) and next Tuesday (December 20). Dame Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, and her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, asked RCN general secretary Pat Cullen to allow union members to break the picket line to cover A&E services, cancer therapy and urgent mental health care.
But the RCN said the letter was 'already out of date' following a meeting with top clinicians where key points - including the need to agree exemptions from the industrial action - were agreed.
