These nurses would rather have a raise than praise (Picture: SOPA Images/Shutterstock)

Nurses are threatening fresh strikes in the New Year on an even bigger scale if ministers fail to respond to their demands.

More hospitals are set to be hit if the Government falls foul of its new deadline, as leader of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen called for the dispute to be ‘wrapped up’ by Christmas.

They have given ministers a 48-hour countdown which will begin after the second day of strikes on Tuesday.

The union has also warned it will scale back its support for non-emergency services if further walkouts go ahead next month, with a ‘less generous’ offer for hospitals.

Nurses have vowed to keep staff in their posts for chemotherapy, emergency cancer services, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care.

Some areas of mental health and learning disability and autism services are also exempt, while trusts have been told they can request staffing for specific clinical needs.

‘Ministers can take away the worries of nurses who are expecting to start the year with such uncertainty,’ Ms Cullen said.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has called the pay demands ‘unaffordable’ (Picture: PA)

Thousands of nurses across the country are going on strike in a dispute over pay (Picture: ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

‘We aren’t looking for a miracle, it is in their gift to solve it.’

She said fresh strikes in January would see ‘more hospitals and more nurses taking part than at present’.

Ms Cullen previously warned that without a deal there would be a further ‘escalation’ of the action in January.

The setting of a firm deadline for ministers means the threat is now locked in.

Despite the widespread disruption caused by the nurses’ first strike on Thursday, polling showed the majority of the public were behind them.

‘Clapped us? Back us?’ a placard reads at the nurses’ picketline (Picture: SOPA Images/Shutterstock)

Nurses have given ministers a 48-hour countdown (Picture: SOPA Images/Shutterstock)

It involved around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all trusts in Northern Ireland and all but one health board in Wales.

Across England, 9,999 staff were absent from work due to the strike, while nearly 16,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries were rescheduled.

Ms Cullen has said the union’s demand for a 19% rise is simply a ‘starting point’ and that she would put any new offer to her members.

But the Government has repeatedly refused to stray from the advice of the independent pay review body, despite some Tories calling for a rethink.

Nurses were recommended a £1,400 raise, an average of a 4.3% raise for qualified staff.

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Oliver Dowden said nurses’ demands for a 19% wage hike are ‘simply not affordable’, and claimed applying this increase ‘across the board’ would set families back £1,000 each.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told the BBC: ‘It would also add to inflation and make us all poorer in the long run.’

When challenged on the figure, Mr Dowden said the Government may even be ‘underestimating’ the cost.

‘What I can tell you is our number is justified on the basis of taking the inflation number, which is what the unions are asking for and projecting it forward to next year,’ he said.

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‘Clapped us? Back us?’