Hospitals were today ordered to plan a military-style operation to prepare for devastating NHS strikes this winter.
Tens of thousands of doctors and nurses could walk out in protest over their pay in early 2023.
Officials are working to ensure each part of the health service is ready, in the event historic, NHS-wide industrial action goes ahead.
Action could see thousands of operations and appointments cancelled. Tories have warned it would be ‘criminal’ and risk lives.
The Royal College of Nurses wants nurses to get a pay rise 5 per cent above inflation, far above the around 4 per cent being offered by No10
RCN members are currently being balloted on a historic strike action, the first in the union’s 106-year-history
NHS England (NHSE) has told trusts to test their ‘preparedness’ with a multi-day drill codenamed Exercise Arctic Willow.
The operation — an extension of routine winter exercises carried out by trusts — will take place in mid-November.
Originally, hospitals were going to be asked to ensure systems were ready to deal with seasonal winter pressures, including the ‘twindemic’ threat of Covid and flu as well as the knock-on effects of the cold weather.
Similar resilience plans, arranged in the run-up to winter, can be carried out through table-top discussions involving senior staff deliberating over the best ways to tackle the threat at hand.
Live play exercises are also used occasionally. This can see medics testing the trust’s response to a mock incident in real-time.
NHS England said its task was ‘to be prepared for any potential industrial action so there is minimal disruption to patient care and emergency services can continue to operate as normal’.
Guidance was sent to senior executives across the 42 newly-formed Integrated Care Boards and individual trusts.
The letter was signed by Mike Prentice, NHSE’s national director for emergency planning and incident response, and Navina Evans, NHSE’s chief workforce officer.
NHS workers cannot legally be sacked if they participate in official and lawful industrial action.
A minimum staffing level would be in place to ensure patients have access to emergency care, urgent diagnostic procedures and they are not at risk of death or disability.
One union has, however, argued that this would see more medics working than is the case now.
The Royal College of Nursing’s first ever ballot on UK-wide strike action ends tomorrow, with results due to be announced next week.
Around 300,000 members of the 106-year-old union were asked if they were prepared to walk out in the ‘once in a generation’ vote.
It demanded nurses get a salary uplift of at least five per cent above inflation, which currently sits at 12.3 per cent. This would grant the average nurse, who earns roughly £35,600 each year, an extra £6,150.
Ministers have rejected calls to pay up, a decision which could have cost taxpayers an extra £1billion.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen has said the Government’s current offer — around £1,400 per nurse, in reality — ‘makes a difference to a nurse’s wage of 72p an hour’.
Midwives are also being urged to vote in favour of strike action in a ballot that starts on November 11 for a period of four weeks.
The British Medical Association, a union representing 160,000 GPs, consultants, and junior doctors, has warned industrial action is ‘inevitable’.
It is set to poll junior doctors — who are demanding a 26 per cent pay rise — in January.
Meanwhile, Unison is asking 350,000 NHS staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including porters, nurses, paramedics and cleaners, to vote in favour of walking out.
A ballot of its 50,000 members in Scotland, which was already under way, has been suspended after a new pay offer.
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