NHS staff have told Health Secretary Steve Barclay their A&E department is "always short of staff" and every day is a "challenge" - as he claimed a 10% pay rise for nurses is unaffordable.
The under-fire Secretary of State was given the stark message in a visit to a North London hospital on the day thousands of nurses take part in strike action in a bitter dispute over pay and patient safety.
Senior nurse Alicia Borja, who works at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, North London, told him: "We have so many ambulances coming here.