NHS ambulance strikes will put patients at risk – but delays already at record high

A queue of ambulances outside the Royal London hospital emergency department last month. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

At any other moment in the 74-year history of the NHS, thousands of nurses staging their first ever strike would represent the single biggest threat to patient care.

Last Thursday’s stoppage by nurses resulted in the cancellation of 16,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries in England, with more set to be postponed this Tuesday.