The North’s Health and Social Care Board has warned of “major challenges” in the provision of healthcare in Northern Ireland on Wednesday due to a strike by nurses and paramedics. About 9,000 nurses in Northern Ireland will take part in a 12-hour stoppage from 8am. Ambulance paramedics will be on strike for 24 hours from midnight. “With around 2,800 vacant nursing posts in the system, record levels of expenditure on agency staff to try to plug the gaps, and nurses’ pay continuing to fall further and further behind the rest of the UK, nurses have had enough. “Northern Ireland Ambulance Service will be prioritising 999 calls and those calls which are less serious in nature, potentially, face a delay in response times,” the Trusts said.

Source: The Irish Times December 18, 2019 00:56 UTC