WORKER anger “has become action,” the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned today as the union confirmed that a majority of its 300,000 members will launch their biggest-ever strike over pay and worsening patient safety.

The union urged the public to “show you are with us” and said Tory ministers must “look in the mirror” after workers across Britain and Northern Ireland backed RCN’s first statutory ballot on widespread industrial action in its more than century long history.

The walkouts, which could start before Christmas and last until at least May, follow the decision to give most staff across England and Wales an average wage boost of just 4.75 per cent earlier this year — less than half the rate of soaring double-digit inflation.

NHS workers in Scotland were initially offered 5 per cent, but that has now risen to just over 8 per cent for newly qualified nurses — still a real-terms pay cut.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: “Anger has become action — our members are saying enough is enough.

“The voice of nursing in the UK is strong and I will make sure it is heard. Our members will no longer tolerate a financial knife-edge at home and a raw deal at work.

“Ministers must look in the mirror and ask how long they will put nursing staff through this.”

Ms Cullen said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement next week is an “opportunity to signal a new direction with serious investment,” adding: “Politicians have the power to stop this now. 

“This action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses. Standards are falling too low and we have strong public backing for our campaign to raise them.”

The industrial action will see emergency care protected but non-urgent treatment affected across 176 NHS hospitals, trusts and health boards.

The ballot was “disaggregated,” meaning strikes will only happen in places where the overall turnout and Yes vote met Tory anti-union thresholds.

Every health service employer in Scotland and Northern Ireland are braced for walkouts after workers met the requirements, while all bar one in Wales are set to see action. 

In England, NHS foundation trusts in Cambridge and Birmingham are included on the list of those due for strikes, as is central London’s Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, opposite Parliament.

The government has urged workers to “carefully consider the impact on patients,” but Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused ministers today of “unacceptable negligence,” saying they had “spent the summer dodging calls and requests for meetings” from the RCN.

“The Conservatives have stopped governing and it is nurses and patients who will be made to pay the price,” he added.

Health union Unison, which has joined Unite and GMB in also balloting its NHS members for industrial action, said the vote by nurses is a “loud wake-up call.”

Unison head of health Sara Gorton said: “Hundreds of thousands more nurses, paramedics, cleaners, healthcare assistants and other NHS employees are still to decide if they’ll be striking — now is the time for swift action to avoid a damaging dispute.

“A strike across the NHS this winter isn’t inevitable. Unions want to work with ministers to solve the staffing crisis and its impact on patient care, but that must start with another pay rise for health workers.”

The Royal College of Midwives is set to launch its own strike ballot tomorrow as NHS staff step up their fightback against a decade of austerity wages, cuts to services and creeping privatisation.