Today (February 6) sees the biggest day of industrial action ever to affect the NHS as thousands of nurses and ambulance workers strike.

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members across England are taking action today and tomorrow, February 7.

But today, nurses and ambulance crews who are members of the GMB union are also on strike.

The RCN says today and tomorrow will be the biggest nurses’ strikes so far, affecting more than a third of NHS trusts in England.

The union has about 300,000 members - around two-thirds of NHS nurses.

Members are taking action at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and at the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which is responsible for Derriford Hospital, where many patients from Cornwall are treated.

The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which provides ambulances for Cornwall, will be affected by strike action today and on Friday, February 10.

GMB members in Cornwall and the wider South West are scheduled to take strike action today and on February 20, March 6 and 20, affecting the ambulance service.

Up to 4,200 members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) are due to take strike action on February 9, but no NHS trusts affecting Cornwall are so far involved.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has opened a ballot for junior doctors on whether they too should take industrial action. The vote concludes on February 20.

The RCN is calling for a 19 per cent pay rise, although it has indicated it may meet the government "halfway".

Unions representing ambulance workers and physiotherapists also want above-inflation pay rises, but have not specified a figure.

The government says the demands are unaffordable, and that pay rises are decided by independent pay review bodies.