Unless Health Secretary Steve Barclay gets his act together, 100,000 nurses will walk out of the job they love in just 11 days.
We urge Mr Barclay to get round the negotiating table with the Royal College of Nursing to thrash out a deal that will avert this strike - and also to recognise it is about more than just pay.
Eight in ten nurses say patient safety is being put at risk because staffing levels are so low.
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen blames years of Tory under investment in the profession for the crisis now facing it.
Only two in five nursing shifts have the staffing required while vacancies have reached a record 48,000. Nurses are simply at the end of their tether.
Not only has their pay been cut 20% in real terms since 2010, but they are now watching helplessly while their patients suffer due to staff shortages.
Fewer than one in five said they had the time to provide the level of care patients need and nurses want to give them.
A strike will mean the seven million patients on hospital waiting lists will have to wait even longer.
Mr Barclay must urgently come up with the extra staff to reduce that queue and offer decent pay to all NHS staff.
Because it is now the NHS itself which needs intensive care.
Words of wisdom
There will be those who sympathise with Adam White for chasing two burglars in his car after they tried to rob his house while he and his wife watched TV.
Less so after they sustained serious injuries after a collision on their stolen motorbike. But Adam paid dearly for that moment of madness.
He lost his £60,000 job, got hit with a £50,000 legal bill and ended up spending eight miserable months behind bars.
Generous crowdfunders are now helping solve Adam’s financial problems by raising £160,000.
But the money will never wipe away the regret Adam feels for the damage caused by his enraged actions that night. His advice now is to never take the law into your own hands.
Wise words we would all do well to follow.
