Meanwhile, at least three ambulance services today declared critical incidents ahead of the strikes, saying the sickest and most severely injured patients would be prioritised as they faced extraordinary demand.
The services said they took the decision because of pressures, including 999 call volumes and hospital handover delays. These are the affected ambulance services. And these are the full details of tomorrow’s strike action.
Day’s wait for broken hip at 93
In an example of the winter pressures already facing the NHS, a 93-year-old woman was left lying on the floor with a broken hip waiting for an ambulance for 25 hours.
Elizabeth Davies fell at her care home and was left “screaming in pain” for more than a day. When she was finally taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, she endured another 12-hour wait before being admitted to a ward.
On Monday, Mrs Davies underwent surgery to determine the extent of her injuries after a hip fracture was confirmed. Her son, Ian Davies, and daughter-in-law Susan, from Pwllheli, said the incident was “unacceptable”.
Fresh train strike in January
Train drivers are to stage a fresh strike early in the new year, threatening travel chaos as people return to work after Christmas.
Members of the drivers’ union Aslef at 15 train companies will walk out on Thursday, January 5, after 93pc of members who voted backed more industrial action in the long-running dispute over pay.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 14 train operators are also planning to strike on January 3, 4, 6 and 7, meaning services will be crippled for a week. These are the dates of all the rail walkouts over the next couple of months.
Comment and analysis
World news: Nazi camp secretary, 97, found guilty
A 97-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary has been given a two-year suspended sentence by a German court for complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people. In one of the country’s last Holocaust trials, Irmgard Furchner was found guilty on Tuesday for her role in what prosecutors called the “cruel and malicious murder” of tens of thousands of prisoners at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland. Ms Furchner sat in a wheelchair in the courtroom, wearing a white cap and a medical mask as presiding judge Dominik Gross read out the verdict.
Tuesday long-read: Why The Telegraph’s correspondent had to flee China
In 2012, Sophia Yan arrived in Hong Kong to a mood of national optimism. A decade on, she leaves under a cloud of fear and surveillance. Read the feature