Nurses' strike enters second day as health leaders brace for biggest strike

Health chiefs are drawing up plans for the NHS to face the biggest pay walkout in its history without any sign of an agreement from the government.

It has been announced that paramedics will join nurses in a combined day of action next month, causing 'enormous concern' for NHS officials.

The escalating industrial action comes as thousands of nurses go on strike on Wednesday and Thursday this week at more than 55 NHS trusts in England.

On Wednesday, the GMB union said more than 10,000 ambulance workers, including paramedics, emergency care assistants and call handlers, would stage strikes on February 6, February 20, March 6 and March 20 March.

Nurses are also due to strike on February 6, which means massive disruption can be expected across the NHS, and the following day, February 7.

Striking nurses pictured at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton (

Picture:

Adam Gerard/Daily Mirror)

This is the first time that ambulance staff and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have acted on the same day.

Commenting on the combined strike action, Saffron Cordery, acting chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "Trusts have been warning for months that coordinated strikes were possible if the government and unions failed to to a quick deal on this salary of the year award.

"The prospect of paramedics and nurses striking on the same day is a huge concern. It could be the biggest day of industrial action the NHS has ever seen.

“No one in the NHS wants any more strikes, including staff joining picket lines. Trusted leaders understand why overstretched staff have reached this point amid chronic staff shortages and a demand and under ever-increasing pressure.

"We need ministers to get to the table with unions urgently to address the key pay issue for this exercise, otherwise there is no light at the end of the tunnel."< /p>

Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, added: "This escalation plunges us into the situation that NHS leaders have warned of: a war of attrition between government and unions that is spans several months at a time when NHS services are under unprecedented pressure.