Health leaders have warned that urgent and emergency care could be in a “precarious position” during next week’s nursing strike unless exemptions are brought in by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
NHS Confederation called on the union to allow “vital derogations” for A&E services to prevent hospital wards from becoming “overwhelmed” during the walkout.
Tens of thousands of nurses will walk out across England for 48 hours from 8pm on April 30 after rejecting a pay offer. Previous strikes have included exemptions for cancer and emergency care.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has launched a legal challenge in a bid to obstruct the second day of the strike in a significant escalation of the bitter dispute over pay.
Mr Barclay said that NHS employers had contacted him asking him to check the legality of the action because the strike mandate runs out on May 1.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “While NHS leaders understand why the RCN is intensifying its stance on industrial action, they fear the absence of any exemptions to its planned strikes will put patient care in a precarious position.
“This is particularly the case for patients who will need emergency and intensive care.
“NHS leaders are worried that this action could lead to hospital wards becoming overwhelmed during the strike days and could even put some people off from seeking the care they need.
“We are calling on the RCN to reinstate these vital derogations without delay.”
NHS Confederation said that bank holidays were “already a busy time for urgent and emergency services” and so the “absence of nurses to fill vital shifts will almost certainly place patients at risk”.
An RCN spokesperson said: “Nursing staff don’t want to go on strike, but the NHS and Government have had two weeks to plan for this weekend’s strike.
“Employers are responsible for maintaining safe staffing levels and we’d expect them to cancel non-urgent clinical work and elective procedures due to take place over the strike period.
“We know this is a difficult task and there are exceptional circumstances where we would call a strike off in any hospital.
“But we must remember employers already make difficult staffing arrangements work on most days.”
They added: “Nurses are constantly having to ‘make do’ with too little staff or not enough beds for people, this level of pressure can’t go on any longer.”
Separately, leaders of the British Medical Association (BMA) wrote to Mr Barclay on Tuesday urging him to start talks through the conciliation service Acas.
Both sides remain deadlocked amid a bitter pay dispute, with around 47,000 junior doctors taking part in two sets of strikes in the past two months.
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, both co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, wrote: “We are willing to negotiate, and no further strike action has been called, however, we must avoid attempting to negotiate via letters.
“Therefore, we look forward to meeting with you to begin a positive process towards resolving our dispute.”
