WHITEHALL’S top crisis committee met yesterday to prepare “contingency plans” for NHS strikes next week after tense conciliation talks failed.

Unions and the Department of Health said that talks would resume today — but Mr Hunt pre-empted failure by calling a meeting of the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (Cobra) crisis committee.

Staff across the English and Northern Irish health service, represented by a raft of unions and professional associations, are due to strike next Thursday.

It is the latest walk-out in an ongoing dispute over Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s veto of the pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body.

“Clearly, first and foremost we want the strike to be called off,” a DoH spokesman said.

“But, while talks are ongoing, the government is rightly working with the NHS to ensure that the impact on patients is minimal.

“As part of that, Jeremy Hunt will chair a Cobra meeting tomorrow morning to ensure contingency plans are being put in place.”

The Scottish and Welsh governments agreed to adopt the pay review’s recommendation in full — but staff still only got a measly 1 per cent.

Mr Hunt has drafted in soldiers as scab labour to drive ambulances during previous NHS strikes.

Unison head of health Christina McAnea, who also chairs the health unions’ co-ordinating body, said: “NHS trade unions will continue to talk with the department. The industrial action planned for next week will go ahead unless a fair pay deal for NHS workers can be reached.”