THOUSANDS of health workers across East Lancashire are preparing to take part in further strike action on Thursday, as part of the national dispute over NHS pay.

Dozens of non-urgent appointments and operations are likely to be cancelled as a result of the action, with health trusts busy drawing up their response plans this week.

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Union leaders were locked in discussions with ministers yesterday in a bid to avert the action, although there has been little sign of a breakthrough.

The Ministry of Defence has said it will provide assistance in some areas.

Ambulance members of the GMB union are set to strike for 24 hours from midnight tomorrow, while thousands of other health workers will take action for 12 hours from midday on Thursday.

Workers are furious at the government’s refusal to give a recommended one per cent pay rise to all NHS staff. The Lancashire Telegraph asked each health authority that serves East Lancashire to outline their plans to cope with the strike action, but none provided any detail.

David Smithson, head of human resources at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Our main objective will be ensuring that any disruption to services is kept to a minimum and the quality of patient care is not compromised.

“We are discussing with the unions ways to ensure that services which involve emergency and critical care are not affected.

“It’s difficult to predict how many staff willtake industrial action. Employees are not required to tell us . However many staff are letting us know their intentions in advance, which helps us minimise the effect on patients.

“Based on previous strike days we should expect 10 per cent of the workforce will take action, although it is worth noting that the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association are not taking part.”

The ambulance service had not finalised it plans. Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust did not respond in time for our deadline, while Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: “The trust’s overriding statutory obligation is to provide high quality and safe services to our service users and during any periods of industrial action management will implement contingency plans.”

Christina McAnea, of the Unison union, said: “We’ve been telling the government they could no longer ignore NHS pay.”.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The Ministry has been asked to provide support to the Department of Health during strike action by ambulance staff.”