Great Ormond Street to get special exemptions during upcoming strikes
It's after hospital bosses said they had "serious concerns" about staffing, when strikes start tomorrow
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has been granted exemptions to ease the pressure on its services during the upcoming nursing strikes.
Bosses had expressed "serious concerns" about staffing as members of the RCN union walk out from tomorrow, for 28 hours.
The RCN had previously said it did not agree to derogations - broad areas of care where unions agree to provide staffing during industrial action.
But union leader Pat Cullen said mitigations were granted on Friday following a request from GOSH, insisting nurses working at the hospital would "never ever" leave child patients at risk.
The protocol surrounding exemptions requires the RCN to pass its approval on to NHS England, which is then responsible for notifying the individual organisation, Ms Cullen said.
She added that any derogations being sought by other organisations would be given "very careful consideration" to ensure critical areas of care can continue.
Mat Shaw, the hospital's chief executive, had said: "We respect the right of our staff to take part in lawful industrial action, but after exhausting all options, at the moment we have serious concerns over how we will safely staff our hospital during the strike.
"There is nothing more important than the safety of our patients and so we have no choice but to declare a business continuity incident."
It is understood the situation is under review following the RCN's decision to grant exemptions on Friday evening.
Nurses make up a quarter of NHS staff and are the biggest proportion of the health service workforce.