hello this is bbc news. the headlines... the prince of wales has led tributes to the queen on the day she becomes the first british monarch to reign for 70 years. in other news: the business secretary urges tory mps to give the prime minister "time and space" — as a former conservative leader says borisjohnson faces a "very difficult task" to win back the public�*s trust. a lawyer says a man jailed for the murder of milly dowler has admitted killing lin russell and her daughter, megan, in 1996. paul bacon says a statement from levi bellfield includes details of how he claims to have carried out the attack in kent. and, the chairman of tesco has told the bbc �*the worst is yet to come�* on food prices for consumers. john allan also said it was "wrong" for the governor of the bank of england to call for pay restraint, as part of efforts to keep inflation under control.

now on bbc news... birmingham heartlands hospital has one of the busiest intensive care units in the region. we follow three nurses on a night shift to find out what it's really like to be an intensive care nurse. no one dies alone in intensive care. it's me that sits there and holds your relative's hand. it's me that talks to them in their last few minutes. it is me that makes sure they're comfortable. no two days are the same. you don't know what you're going to walk into. our aim is to make patients better so they can go home to their families.

covid has changed - intensive care completely. the demand for the service isjust extraordinary. - we need to look after ourselves to be the best nurses we possibly can be. we cry together, we feel our emotions together and i think that's so important. i do like a busy shift, it makes you think a lot and puts your nursing skills to the test. i'm really proud to be an itu nurse. it's a really special place to worm and i'm proud to make such a difference in people's lives and i'm even more proud of the team i have got around me.

working for the nhs, it does fill me full of pride, to be honest. i know it's hard and i know a lot of people don't feel the same, but it is something i personally enjoy. who are you on with today, then? i'm on with niamh and charlene. it should be a good shift. i'm proud to be part of the intensive care team. come on, everybody, dinner is ready. - family is so important to me.

i have got through some of my toughest times because of my family. how was work today, dad? busy, very busy. that is lovely. is it nice? rating out of ten. zero. laughter. yeah, zero. excuse me! we have family time together before i go to work. it adds to that togetherness. it just adds that togetherness. i'm off then. i enjoy work because no two days of the same.

you don't know what you're going to walk into. i love myjob and it's down to a few reasons. i love my team, first of all. if we didn't have the team we have, it would be a struggle. ourteam are amazing. we are full of love and we really try to radiate good vibes because it's been so difficult lately. we're not fake about it. and then in bed 2, 54 years old, out of hospital, cardiac arrest... we cry together, we feel our emotions together and that is so important.

everybody understands that and everybody has empathy. presented with a history of shortness of breath... birmingham is just so diverse. you get people from every single background and i think that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. oh, thank you. thank you very much. singing. you 0k? yeah, are you? good. on intensive care we care for critically ill patients. i think we have a huge responsibility to our patients, to each other, to theirfamilies to keep that person safe. our aim is to make patients better so they can go home to theirfamilies. she's got better over

the last few days. i've dropped her support down to 14. lovely. see you later. just look in all the drawers and see if you've got any goggles. - yeah. got some. neelam is one of the most beautiful souls i think i've ever met. she's the most caring, considerate nurse i think i've ever worked with. she really takes her patients into her heart. i love niamh so much. she's just the light. like, at work, she is just the light. i reckon we are going to get stuck together for a while. have to take you to the ward like this. like that. laughter. that feel 0k?

just cold? some people think in itu we have this magic machine called life support. and it has a button we can switch on and off and itjust runs. in reality, there isn't this magic machine. there's multiple things we can offer, but it takes us in the bed space to keep doing those things and keep those machines running and respond to the changing needs of the patient to keep them alive. right, rntibiotics are in. right, antibiotics are in. to work on itu, it is very much you either love it or hate itjob. we are very particular about things. we go through lists, we're meticulous. right, i'm going to go and get some drugs out. i've grown up in birmingham pretty much my whole life. i remember always wanting to be a nurse. when i was 12, my dad had quite a nasty brain haemorrhage.

he was only 40 and he spent a month in intensive care at good hope. unfortunately, he passed away and in those last hours when we were called in to spend time with him before he died, i sat at his bed space with the family around him. once he had gone, everyone was hugging each other. in the midst of the chaos i think i was forgotten about. i remember crying and i remember the nurse coming to me and holding her in my arms and just telling me it was going to be ok. i rememberjust sobbing to this nurse. and i still remember her now. she had a massive impact on my life. you know, my dad has final hours, to know that she cared enough

and she was crying with me. ijust wanted to be able to make a difference like she did for me for someone else, to give something back like that, because she was a really special lady. so, he is quite settled. i have put him onto the big cepap mask to sleep. we can take people from the brink of death back i have put him onto the big cpap mask to sleep tonight so that he can get some rest. we can take people from the brink of death back to the start of theirjourney. to be able to offer someone that in their worst time of need is an honour to be part of. all right, take care. bye!

at home, there is the three of us. there is me, my husband gary and my 18—month—old son. a lot of the night shift workers on the itu are the mum crew. a lot of the new mums coming back to work after maternity leave tend to get our fixed night shift because it does work better with childcare. i think being a night shift worker does have an impact on your relationship, more than you realise initially. gary really has to pick up the slack at home with me working nights. so, he will swap over the childcare role. can mummy have a lie—in tomorrow? gary's always been really supportive with my career. we've been together from when i started training. we've, kind of, grown up together, with nursing as the third person in our relationship.

the juggling aspect of mum life and work life is intense. like, i finished a night shift last night and i've had probably two—and—a—half hours' sleep, but i know i have to get up because i have a small window to get a fewjobs done before lenny's home from nursery and then we start the bath and bedtime routine with him. and then i'll need to go back into work again. it can turn into this 24/7 rolling list ofjobs. when you have good teamwork and intensive care unit, it is like very well—oiled routine. you have to be prepared for every eventuality. our staff ratio is one to one because it is so risky. that's why staffing ratio is normally one—to—one because it's so risky. it is a riskyjob and if something happens

and you are not anticipating it, you have got to do something very quickly. that's why there is an adrenaline rush. you patient could be fine one minute and then not fine the next. you have got to use your brain and definitely stay on your toes. i always think if it was my family member in that bed, how would i want them to be treated? and treat them to the best of your ability and do your best with them. hello. my name's neelam. i'm looking after you tonight, 0k? you're perfectly safe here in heartlands. it's ok, it's ok. she can hear what we're saying, so i think the reassurance for them is really important. it's something they often remember when they wake up, so i try, we all try to talk to our patients all the time. let me listen to your chest, darling. any doctors around there? why? her heart rate is ridiculous.

you're joking? yeah. at the desk. i think she's having a vomit. she's got loads of secretions. she's got loads of secretions - and it's coming out from the mouth. with that patient, she was getting extremely, extremely agitated. it is a state you don't want your patients to be in. they get really agitated then all their numbers start to go off — hers did. they don't look right in the face, she was coughing. she was a little bit too awake and not appropriate, i would say.

and she was kind of trying to move her arm. you have to be very mindful because if they move their arm up too much they can unhook their finger around the tube, they can pull it out. and that's something we never want to happen. that's an emergency situation. just give her, like, five milligrams if she's still tachy like this. - by that, we knew she wasn't ready to be woken up properly and she needed to rest overnight. sometimes some patients need an extra few hours on some sedation, just letting the ventilator take

over and do the work again, just to get a bit of a rest. it can help a lot. this patient wasn't going to survive, and i knew his family, if they were here, would have prayed for him. i am the same faith as them, so i did that for him. there were a few of us in the bed space. we didn't leave his side. he passed away really peacefully. about a week later, i still had the son of the patient on my mind, and ijust wondered if he knew what had happened, or what i did, so i asked my manager if i could ring the son. she said yes, so i gave him a call. and i think the son was really grateful for that. it gave them, as a family, a lot of closure. we really need to get him on the bed. get him on the bed and get him to the ward.

it's charlene here. i need to take that line out of your neck. i am a brummie born and bred, so working within one _ of the hospitals in birmingham, looking after the people - of birmingham, - i absolutely love it. where else would i want to be? i'm going to take i this dressing down. just like a big plaster coming off your neck, all right? - charlene will always have your back. she's the go to for a cup of tea and a chat when things are a bit tough. she's a really good shoulder to cry on. she's a strong, mother—like figure, i think. that is all over- with now, all right? i do like a busy shift. it makes the shift go very quickly, so i don't mind it.

it makes you think a lot and put | your nursing skills to the test. i it is only when i sit back and look at myjob rolel and what it entails, - it's actually quite intense and demanding. at any given moment, a patient can deteriorate, and their lives - are, ultimately, in our hands. you've really got . to know your stuff. our friend and colleague, amy, she worked with us. we were really, really close with her as friends. she took her own life before the pandemic. and, outwardly, she was the happiest person that you could meet. she was so funny, so caring. everything that you'd want in a friend, was amy. but little did we know, she was obviously struggling. and that was difficult. she wasn't going to tell us.

so i think since then we make the conscious effort to look after each other. we say, "i love you," all the time. like, even if we'rejust going for our break, we say, "i love you, bye." we all really, genuinely care for each other. notjust because we have to, because we want to. we value each other so much. tonight we've had admissions, discharges, deaths, patients it never stops, especially in a hospital as busy as this one. the demand is just always there, no matter what time of day or night it is,

so it is intense. i'm going to do a mid—week roast tonight. you need it with this weather, don't you? j and post night—shift as well, cosy. beef stew. mm! crusty bread. 0h! loads of butter. oh, god. plenty of pepper. literally talking dirty to me now. if you haven't got anyone - to have a laugh with on shift, it's going to be a long night. and sometimes going for a quick walk around the unit, _ we've been known to dance to wake ourselves up. - just having someone to have a chat iwith can definitely lift the mood. i i need to go back. cool let's go. death is a really big part of working in intensive care and to work there you have to be prepared to face it. i'm just closing the window. the patient in this bed

space has passed away. it's a bit of an old wives tale on the wards that if your patient has passed away, you need to leave the window open to let the soul find its way out, otherwise it gets trapped in the hospital. it's something that's stuck everywhere, to always have the window open. so, we have these. so, it's a memory box. it's got a little sympathy card that we've started to fill in with us off the unit, just saying, sorry for your loss. so, they have little things like this in, they're all quite different. so, they have teddies in so one can

stay with the patient and one can go with the relatives, they've always got a matching teddy bear. we never leave a patient. no—one dies alone in intensive care. it is me that talks to them in their last few minutes. it's me that make sure they are comfortable. i try and play the radio. i don't like people to die in silence, so finding the radio. sometimes i even sing to them. we went home one night after a day shift and then came back the next day and it was carnage. siren wails.

it had flipped upside down overnight, and we had no idea what was happening. covid has changed intensive care completely. the demand for the service isjust extraordinary. the world has tried to carry on, but covid's still rife and just taking over our intensive cares up and down the country. if i'm completely honest, people are burnt out, people are exhausted, people are frustrated, overworked. the demand doesn't stop. we still need to be there, and we still want to give 110%, but it gets difficult. at this point i actually feel 0k. i'd like to say it's a wind down, but it's more like a mad rush

to get everything done. i want to make it a smooth transition for the nurse that comes on for the day. just tidying up, just so it doesn't look too messy when the next staff come in. there's nothing worse than coming into a messy room to start your day because then you're already starting off on the back foot. we wouldn't be at this point where we're ready to go if it wasn't for teamwork. we rely on that help and support from each other, because even though we only have one patient, what we have to do, we are just run off our feet. he came to us at about 2am this morning. the plan is to wake this morning. hopefully it will go plain sailing. is that all right? yep, that's lovely, thank you. beautiful, thank you. the best part of ourjob has got to be my colleagues. i think with anyjob, anywhere

in the world, your colleagues will make or break your shift, and we are one big family there. yeah, i absolutely love the people i work with. yesterday, what they tried to do was wean her off the drug. they switchd both them off and started her on something else. she is just quietly settled. going home now, my darling. i hope you get well soon. got to get better and go home, 0k? i really enjoy, when i look at a patient at the end of the day or the end of the night i think, i have actually made a difference here and i have made them a little bit better. that is just the best feeling. see you later. he was really quite breathless last night and dropped his stats before i put him onto cpap. then he seemed really settled overnight. is that all right? i am really proud to be itu nurse.

i think it's a really special place to work and i think there's so much potential to progress there and the knowledge i have picked up in four years, i can only imagine what it's going to be like in another four. i'm proud to make such a difference in people's lives, and at the end of people's lives. i'm proud of the work i do and i'm even more proud of the team i've got around me. bye everyone. have a nice day! i'm going out tonight! i'm going out...

hello. the rest of sunday is, essentially, some sunshine and showers, but across the northern half the uk for scotland, parts of northern ireland and northern england that means further snow showers. there's gusty winds and we could see some blizzards. further south, any showers will be of rain blown through quickly on those strong and gusty winds. mightjust see a bit of patchy rain returning to the far south—west of england. across the southern half of the uk, we saw our highest temperatures this morning, falling away through the afternoon. we're looking at 4—9 celsius, typically, as a top temperature. now, overnight, the winds will ease. the showers will fade. for many, it becomes cold and clear with a risk of frost and ice away from western areas as more cloud starts to push in from the west.

so, away from northern ireland and western scotland temperatures quite widely at or below freezing, that means it is a cold and frosty start tomorrow. patchy rain into scotland, northern england, northern ireland and wales. further south and east should stay dry but increasingly curvy. it will, however, be feeling milder. goodbye. —— increasingly cloudy.

i'm ben mundy, you're watching bbc news. we'lljoin clive myrie shortly for a full round—up of the day's main stories. but before we do — prince charles says he's honoured by a request from the queen that the duchess of cornwall be known as queen consort when he becomes king. the prince of wales has paid tribute to the queen, calling her 70 years on the throne as a "remarkable achievement". jane hill is at buckingham palace for us today. we've had the statement from her ma'esty which, amon-st we've had the statement from her majesty which, amongst other things, is looking forward to the year ahead. she says it is her greatest wish that camilla becomes queen consort when the time comes. let's discuss the day and the year ahead with victoria howard who is with me at the palace, the editor of the website, the crown chronicles, and

website, the crown chronicles, and we can start with that thought