Responding to the Royal College of Nursing's plans to escalate their pay dispute with the government by involving staff from emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards in the next round of industrial action, Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers said:

"Plans to escalate strikes even further is alarming given the significant impact they've already had on patients. The walkouts have led to 137,000 appointments being postponed so far, with nearly 50,000 of those being from Monday and Tuesday last week alone.

"A continuous 48-hour strike that includes staff from emergency departments, intensive care units and cancer care services would likely have the biggest impact on patients we've seen. This will be significantly compounded if junior doctors also vote to strike from next month – further derailing efforts to tackle care backlogs.

"Neither trust leaders nor their staff want patients to be impacted, but frontline workers feel they've been pushed to take action due to their challenging working conditions and pay levels. The only way to avert more disruption is to bring the strikes to an end, which means the government must talk to the unions, now, about pay for this financial year."