Ministers were given a stark two-week warning on Monday to prepare for an all-out strike by the Royal College of Nursing amid growing fears over its impact on patients.
One of the union’s leaders stressed that the Government and hospital chiefs had only a short time window before its latest walk-out planned for England from 30 April to 2 May.
Royal College of Nursing for England Director Patricia Marquis told LBC Radio: “In exceptional circumstances we will call off in any organisation the strikes and allow people to return.
“But at this point our plans are to run strikes where all members are called out on action.”
Asked what will happen to people on wards with cancer, for example, she said nurses who were not RCN members would be at work.
“But what we are saying to the Government now is ‘you have got two weeks to plan’,” she added.
“Nurses work every day, short staffed with not enough beds and with services that are not adequate for the patients that are there.
“So, we really call on the Government, and for all organisations, to plan, plan, plan.
“Work out who you have got to provide the services that are going to be needed on those days.
“They will need to manage. We know it’s not an ideal situation, we know that. But the Government needs to listen.”
Pressed on what would happen if a child dies in A&E due to the strike action, she added: “I absolutely understand the public concern, the patient concern, around this.”
She admitted that “public support will wane” for the industrial action if such tragedies happen.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan stressed: “Unions need to put safety first.”
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the National Education Union Mary Bousted refused to rule out coordinating strike action with junior doctors.
When asked if teachers were tempted to walk out at the same time as health unions, Ms Bousted told BBC Radio 4: "If strike action occurs on the same day, yes we will do.
Our first consideration for strike action is A, we don’t want to do it, we would rather be in negotiations. And B, when can we do it when will our members member be able to take strike action. For example we are ruling out the exam period.
“If we can act together in solidarity then that’s fine, but that’s not our first consideration."
Nurses could strike until Christmas if they cannot reach a deal with the Government, a union leader has warned.
Royal College of Nursing leader Pat Cullen called for the Government to improve its pay offer to avoid further strikes but assured patients that nurses will come off picket lines to deal with emergencies.
The RCN announced on Friday that its members will walk out for 48 hours from 8pm on April 30 after rejecting the Government’s pay offer.
NHS nurses in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards will take industrial action for the first time.
When asked if the union will stop strike action, Ms Cullen told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg On Sunday programme: “No, our nurses will absolutely not do that.
“We have strike action for the end of this month and the beginning of May.
“Then we will move immediately to ballot our members.
“If that ballot is successful it will mean further strike action right up until Christmas.”
The union leader added that nurses saw a one-off Covid bonus offered by the Government as a “bribe”.
NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery told the programme it is “not sustainable” for the NHS to continue managing strike action.
She said: “It’s really clear to me that it’s not sustainable going forward for the NHS to manage strike action.
“It feels like a really ugly situation to say we are going to have strikes now until Christmas.
“We really desperately need the Government to come to the table alongside the unions coming to the table to sort this out.”
In an opinion piece for The Sun, Health Secretary Steve Barclay warned that fresh nurses’ strikes would have a “deeply concerning” impact on emergency services and cancer care.
The Health Secretary called on the RCN to accept the Government’s pay offer so the NHS can “get back to focusing on patients”.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr Barclay tweeted a copy of a letter he had sent to Ms Cullen which urged the union to reconsider further industrial action and said he would welcome a meeting to discuss avoiding strikes.
In the letter, Mr Barclay said the most recent pay offer was a “fair and reasonable settlement”, adding: “The decision to refuse at this stage any exemptions for even the most urgent and life-threatening treatment during this action will, I fear, put patients at risk.”
On Friday, Unison’s NHS members accepted the NHS pay offer of a five per cent pay rise this year and a cash payment for last year.
However, 54 per cent of RCN members voted to reject the deal.
The turnout among RCN members employed on NHS Agenda for Change contracts in England was 61 per cent.
The RCN announcement came as around 47,000 junior doctors finished their 96-hour strike in a separate dispute over pay at 7am on Saturday.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting appealed to the RCN to continue to protect emergency lifesaving care if it strikes again.
The Labour politician told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “I’m deeply worried about the risk of escalation of the nature of their dispute, to remove what’s known as the derogations, the measures they put in place to protect those areas of care.”
Tory Party chairman Greg Hands said more strikes by nurses would “clearly have an impact” as he declined to criticise them for deciding not to provide cover for emergencies.
Mr Hands told Sky News: “I think the public are very concerned, understandably, and we will do everything that we can, and I’m sure the management of the NHS will do everything that it can to make sure that the impact of the strike is kept under control.
“But I wouldn’t be being truthful if I didn’t say it will have an impact. Nurses going on strike will clearly have an impact.”
