LONDON: Tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance drivers will walk off the job on Monday in Britain's largest-ever health workers' strike over an intensifying pay dispute, which the health minister warned will put additional strain on the National Health Service (NHS).

Since late last year, nurses and ambulance workers have been striking separately on and off. However, the combined walkout on Monday, which will take place primarily in England, will be the largest in the NHS's 75-year history.

Stephen Powis, the top physician in England, predicted that this week's strike action, which will also see physiotherapists walk out on Thursday, would most likely be the most disruptive.

The government claims that health workers' demands for pay increases reflecting the worst inflation in Britain in four decades are unaffordable and would lead to further price increases, raising interest rates and mortgage payments.

Since last summer, about 500,000 employees, many of them in the public sector, have participated in strikes, increasing the pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to settle the disputes and minimize disruptions to public services like trains and schools.

While stressing that there would be disruption, health minister Steve Barclay urged people to keep using the emergency services and showing up for appointments unless they had been cancelled.

He said in a statement that despite the emergency plans in place, the strikes by the ambulance and nursing unions this week will inevitably result in longer wait times for patients who already have to wait longer due to COVID backlogs.

"I continue to urge the trade unions to end the strikes and have had positive discussions with them about pay and affordability."

The Unite union's leader, Sharon Graham, told the BBC on Sunday that she wanted Sunak to participate in negotiations. "This government is endangering lives," she declared.

The National Health Service (NHS), once a source of pride for the majority of Britons, is under tremendous strain due to the millions of patients on waiting lists for surgeries and the thousands of patients who are denied prompt emergency care each month.

According to the RCN, tens of thousands of nurses have left the field as a result of a decade of low pay — 25,000 in the past year alone — with negative consequences for patient care.

The RCN initially demanded a pay increase of 5% above inflation and later said it could meet the government "halfway," but despite weeks of negotiations, neither side has been able to come to an understanding.

Thousands of ambulance workers who are members of the GMB and Unite trade unions are also planning a walkout on Monday over a pay issue. The two unions have both announced additional days of strike action.

There won't be a mass strike by ambulance workers; calls for help will still be answered.

As they review pay offers from the Welsh government, nurses and some ambulance personnel in Wales have canceled strikes scheduled for Monday.

In a TalkTV interview last week, Sunak stated that he would "love to give the nurses a massive pay rise," but added that the government was forced to make difficult decisions and that it was funding the NHS in other ways, such as by providing ambulances and medical equipment.