![\"Nurses](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/240\/cpsprodpb\/16C11\/production\/_128110239_gettyimages-1450704318.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nNurses will go on strike again on 18 and 19 January in England unless pay talks are opened, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Nurses at more hospital trusts than before will be involved in the strike action in the new year, the union said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, the GMB union has called off a second day of ambulance strikes planned in England and Wales for 28 December.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But it announced a new co-ordinated walkout on 11 January. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Two days of nurses strikes were held in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 15 and 20 December, which resulted in more than 40,000 patient appointments and procedures being rescheduled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On two consecutive days in January, there will be 12-hour walkouts by nurses at 55 health trusts in England – a third of the total.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pat Cullen, head of the RCN, said the union had been left “with no choice” but to arrange January strikes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “The government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January,” Ms Cullen said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “The public support has been heart-warming and I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing to do for patients and the future of the NHS.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he was “disappointed” by the decision to take further strike action. He said meeting unions’ pay demands would mean money being taken away from frontline services, causing delays to patients’ treatment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “Strikes are in no one’s best interest, least of all patients, and I urge unions to reconsider further strike action before walkouts have a worse impact on patients,” he added. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “really sad” about the disruption being caused “to so, so many people’s lives, particularly at Christmas time.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But he insisted he had “acted fairly and reasonably” in accepting public sector pay recommendations and could not risk inflation rising any further.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n