A healthcare worker holds a placard at a picket line during a strike, outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. AFP

If progress is not made in negotiations by the end of January, February will see the most widespread strike so far by National Health Service (NHS) nursing staff, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The planned strikes follow walkouts in December and January. "We are doing this in a desperate bid to get ministers to rescue the NHS. The only credible solution is to address the tens of thousands of unfilled jobs — patient care is suffering like never before," RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said on Monday.

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Interim Chief Executive Saffron Cordery at NHS Providers, the membership organization for NHS trusts in England, said the strike escalation was "very worrying."

"We've seen how disruptive these strikes can be, and more extensive industrial action is likely to have an even greater impact. Nobody wants this to continue happening," Cordery noted.

The education union announces that its members will strike action in February. Picture used for illustrative purposes only.

"We understand how frustrated nurses feel, and how they have got into this point: below-inflation pay awards, the cost-of-living crisis, severe staff shortages and increasing workloads have created near-impossible conditions," she added.

Over the last year, the UK has seen record-high inflation, with the consumer prices index (CPI) rising by 10.7 per cent in November. However, wages have failed to keep up. Salaries for experienced nurses are 20 per cent lower in real terms than in 2010, due to successive below-inflation pay awards, the RCN noted.

Also on Monday, the National Education Union (NEU) announced that its members had voted in overwhelming numbers to take strike action in February and March to demand a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise.

"This dispute can be resolved without recourse to strike action. We are willing to enter into negotiations at any time, any place, but this situation cannot go on," the union said on Twitter.

A five per cent pay rise offered in July actually equates to a 7 per cent pay cut due to the soaring inflation, the NEU noted. There has also been a decline of more than 20 per cent in real term pay for teachers over the past decade and educators are leaving the profession in their droves, it added.

Indo-Asian News Service