Yorkshire campaigners to join national NHS protest

A march will be held in London to call for more beds, staff and funds to ease the problems facing the service.

Activists will also gather at Leeds General Infirmary and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as part of the national day of action.

The London event, called 'NHS in crisis: Fix it now', is being organised by the People's Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.

Activists will march through central London from noon before holding an hour-long rally opposite Downing Street.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Our NHS is in intensive care, starved of the resources necessary to meet the needs of our ageing and diverse society.

"Meanwhile, brilliant, dedicated staff have suffered year after year of pay misery and are having to do more, with less, for less."

Royal College of Nursing president Cecilia Akrisie Anim will address the rally and say: "Nursing staff are bearing the brunt of the enormous pressures facing the NHS.

"Staff at every level are experiencing burnout and many of our colleagues are turning their back on jobs they love. It's no surprise that nursing staff feel overstretched and undervalued."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: "We know the NHS is extremely busy, which is why the government supported it this winter with an additional £437m of funding, and why it was given top priority in the recent budget with an extra £2.8bn allocated over the next two years.

"Despite the extra pressure that comes with winter, the most recently published monthly figures shows hardworking staff treated 55,328 people within four hours every single day, 1,272 more each day than in the same month the previous year.”