Strikes by consultants and junior doctors last week including a joint one-day walkout meant 133,494 routine procedures and appointments had to be rescheduled.

The total number delayed due to industrial action across the NHS – acute, ambulance, mental health and community services – in England since last December is now at least 1.07 million.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive, NHS Providers, said:

"We can't go on like this. It's an uphill battle.

"We need the government and unions to talk urgently to find a breakthrough that could stop strikes.

"In a matter of days senior and junior doctors will stage an unprecedented three-day joint walkout, coinciding with more industrial action by radiographers. That means trusts will have to rebook and disappoint even more patients waiting for care.

"Winter, if it's anything like last year, will be really tough. Trust leaders and staff need time to plan and prepare for winter's extra demands and pressures, while working flat out to cut record-high waiting lists, instead of dealing with the unwanted distraction of yet more strikes.

"Patients with more serious conditions who were spared disruption before are being hit by the latest walkouts. The consequences of each successive strike are deeper and wider and take longer to sort out, and add to trusts' mounting costs.

"Trust leaders understand why so many staff feel driven to take to the picket lines but the longer this damaging deadlock between the government and the unions drags on the worse it will be for patients and the NHS in the long run."