National Health Service nurses in Britain have staged a strike, their first-ever national walkout, as a bitter dispute with the government over pay ramps up pressure on already-stretched hospitals at one of the busiest times of year.

An estimated 100,000 nurses will strike at 76 hospitals and health centres on Thursday, cancelling an estimated 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries in Britain’s state-funded NHS.

Britain is facing a wave of industrial action this winter, with strikes crippling the rail network and postal service, and airports bracing for disruption over Christmas.

Inflation running at more than 10 per cent, trailed by pay offers of about four per cent, is stoking tensions between unions and employers.

Of all the strikes, though, it will be the sight of nurses on picket lines that will be the stand-out image for many Britons this winter.

“What a tragic day. This is a tragic day for nursing, it is a tragic day for patients, patients in hospitals like this, and it is a tragic day for people of this society and for our NHS,” Pat Cullen, the head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union, said to the BBC on a picket line on Thursday.

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The widely admired nursing profession will shut down parts of the NHS, which since its founding in 1948 has developed national treasure status for being free at the point of use, hitting healthcare provision when it is already stretched in winter and with backlogs at record levels due to COVID-19 delays.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said it was deeply regrettable that the strike was going ahead.

“I’ve been working across government and with medics outside the public sector to ensure safe staffing levels, but I do remain concerned about the risk that strikes pose to patients,” he said.

The industrial action by nurses on December 15 and December 20 is unprecedented in the NHS and the British nursing union’s history, but the RCN says it has no choice as workers struggle to make ends meet.

Nurses want a 19 per cent pay rise, arguing they have suffered a decade of real-terms cuts and that low pay means staff shortages and unsafe care for patients.

The government has refused to discuss pay, which Cullen said raised the prospect of more strikes.

-Reuters