A STAGGERING 250,000 NHS operations and appointments are set to be axed this week as junior doctors stage their biggest strike yet.
Ministers believe the British Medical Association have timed their strike to coincide with the Easter holidays to inflict maximum harm on patients.
Militant trade union chiefs are refusing to even enter negotiations unless their demand for a 35 per cent pay hike is on the table.
Junior doctors are going on strike for four days from this Tuesday.
But their action is expected to cause 10 days of massive disruption because it comes on the heels of the Bank Holiday and when many consultants are away for Easter.
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Dr Layla McCay, from the NHS Confederation, said: “In the last junior doctors’ strike, we saw about 175,000 appointments and operations having to be postponed.
“In terms of the disruption that we’re anticipating this time, we reckon it could be up to about a quarter of a million so that is a huge amount of impact for patients up and down the country.”
Ministers and officials had an emergency Cobra meeting about the strike in Whitehall earlier this week.
During the meeting, concerns were raised that the BMA had timed their walkout to inflict “maximum harm” to patients.
Dr McCay added: “What we are hearing from our members who are health leaders across the whole system is that they are more concerned about this than they have been about about any other strike.
“They think that the impact is going to be so significant that this one is likely to have impact on patient safety and that is a huge concern for every healthcare leader.”
Hospitals have cancelled vast numbers of operations and drawn up emergency plans to try to cope with the mass walkout.
But their services are already stretched to near breaking point while waiting lists have hit an all-time high of seven million.
BMA official Dr Latifa Patel said patient care “is at risk every day due to chronic staff shortages and years of underinvestment in equipment and services”.
She added: “We have a jointly agreed system with NHS England in place to ensure patient safety in the event of extreme and unforeseen circumstances.
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“We met with NHS England four times per day during the last strikes to monitor the situation, but there were no requests for a derogation – a temporary stoppage of the industrial action – to be made.
"The same proven arrangements will be in place this time.”
