Escalating strike action by withdrawing protection for emergency hospital care will endanger patient safety, a NHS leader has warned as the government said a “full and final” pay offer had been made to nurses.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, also raised concerns over the possibility of nursing staff and junior doctors walking out at the same time in the dispute over pay.

His comments came as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Friday its members will strike for 48 hours from 8pm on 30 April after rejecting the government’s pay offer.

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NHS nurses in emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards will also take industrial action for the first time.

Mr Taylor told Trevor Phillips on Sky’s Sophie Ridge On Sunday programme that removing derogations agreed by the unions – the measures they put in place to protect certain areas of care – would have an impact.

He said: “We are concerned about the speculation that the possibility of a combination of junior doctors’ and nurses’ action, so both of these things would be a significant escalation.

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“It’s very difficult to see how either of those things wouldn’t endanger patient safety and dignity.”

Meanwhile, Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands told Sky news a “full and final” pay offer had been made to nurses.

He pointed out NHS members of Unison, the largest NHS union had accepted the deal of a 5% pay rise this year and a cash payment for last year.

Mr Hands said: “We think that we’ve made a fair and reasonable offer.

“It is a full and final offer. But we are waiting for the other results to come in from the other unions.

“It’s only reasonable for us during the middle of the balloting process to wait to see those further results and we’ll be laying out a response.

“We’ll obviously be meeting with the NHS staff unions as well to make sure that we can take that forward.”

He added: “Steve Barclay is always willing to talk so long as there aren’t preconditions attached, and so long as there isn’t the threat of strikes going on at the moment.”

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