'Our NHS deserves more than a clap': Campaigners plan demonstration outside Leeds hospitals today

Keep Our NHS Public Leeds will hold a 'small, socially-distanced' demonstration outside LGI and St James's.

They have planned the demonstration to coincide with NHS birthday celebrations, with the UK encouraged to mark the anniversary with a nationwide clap on Sunday.

The campaigners are calling for the Government to 'fill 100,000 empty NHS posts, reinstate the nurse bursary, bring bed numbers up to safe levels and keep the NHS out of trade deals'.

A small group of campaigners will gather at noon today on the roundabout outside the Jubilee Wing with banners, live music, costumes and balloons.

They will move onto Millennium Square outside the Brotherton Wing before gathering outside St James's at 1.15pm.

On Sunday, campaigners will stage a motorcade from Middleton Park Circus up to the northern suburbs of Leeds.

The group say they are celebrating the 72nd birthday of the NHS, as well as protesting its "underfunding, privatisation of services and fragmentation".