How long can we expect strikes to continue?

The Royal College of Nurses (RCN) has announced an extension of their industrial action in England to hospital A&E departments, cancer units and critical care. On top of that, their strikes, starting on 1 March, will be over 48-hour periods, thus covering night shifts as well. It is an escalation that may define the outcome of the dispute.

What’s going to happen?

The headline news is that, aside from some sort of public service strike being scheduled for somewhere in the UK every day for the foreseeable future, on 1 March, from 6am, nurses at more than 120 NHS employers in England will begin action, which for the first time will last 48 hours. This is a significant move, and one loaded with risk for patients, the unions and the government alike.