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Even ‘best’ hospitals struggling, Northern Ireland major incident over strike and overseas nurses shun the north

Even the ‘best’ hospitals are struggling to cope with demand according to a leading think-tank, reports the BBC.

The Nuffield Trust said that on top of long-term failings in some poorer performing hospitals, performance has also recently started to decline in the top 10% of hospitals, particularly in terms of targets on A&E, operations and appointments.

Northern Ireland’s ambulance service has declared a major incident after being ‘inundated’ by staff members reporting they would be joining strike action in response to public spending cuts imposed by Stormont, The Guardian reports.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Trust said it had to take the step – compelling staff to come in to work – in order to maintain safe cover, after it claimed it had been ‘inundated’ with staff stating they would be withdrawing their labour.

Lastly, nurses hired from abroad to help prop up NHS hospitals are leaving jobs in the north-west of England ‘because it’s not like London’, The Telegraph reports.

Turns out that a quarter of foreign nurses hired in Lancashire ended up leaving because they had been led to believe it would be more like living in London, particularly in terms of language.

Nurses struggled to understand local sayings, such as phrases like ‘I’m starved’, meaning I’m cold in Lancashire, as well as ‘blood’ and ‘bath’ when said in a certain accent.