HALF a million nurses have been left “with no choice but to consider strike action” because of government failure to deal with the crises in health and social care, the nurses’ biggest union warned today.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), with a membership of more than 465,000 registered nurses, said adult social care is suffering its own crisis of understaffing caused by low pay and shocking working conditions.

NHS England, representing NHS trusts, said that thousands of hospital beds are being blocked by patients who cannot be discharged because of the lack of social care availability.