HEALTH unions showed their new year resolution yesterday as they announced plans for 48-hour strikes in 2015 if Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt doesn’t back down over aggressive pay cuts.

The announcement from unions including Unison and the GMB is a dramatic step up for the campaign, which has so far been limited to four hour walk-outs in an effort to minimise disruption.

Reps warned yesterday that they were being left with no choice but to escalate as ministers have refused to allow any leeway on pay, which is being frozen for everyone except staff at the very top of their pay bands.

In a heartfelt plea, joint NHS trade unions committee chairwoman Christina McAnea said low-paid NHS staff were feeling the pinch this Christmas harder than ever.

“We have decided not to take strike action over the Christmas period as services are already at breaking point at this time,” she said.

“Our members are demonstrating their concern for patient safety. I only wish the employers and government would do the same.

“In the NHS, many workers are facing serious financial hardship especially at this time of year. 

“It is a national disgrace that 77,000 NHS staff still don’t receive the living wage and that many have to rely on foodbanks.”

Ambulance drivers in the GMB are considering taking 48 hours of continuous strike action from January 29 over the real-terms cut.

The same day, Unison-organised NHS staff will walk out for 12 hours from 9am to 9pm. They will follow this up with a 24-hour strike on February 24.

The Society of Radiographers confirmed its members would walk out for six hours on January 29. A source within another smaller union said they were likely to follow the lead of other unions “for the sake of unity.”

Ten other unions organised within the NHS are set to announce their plans shortly.

GMB ambulance branch chairman Steve Rice said: “Never have I experienced staff morale at such a breaking point, and that is why the GMB is calling an urgent GMB ambulance meeting to discuss the details of a potential two-day stoppage across the ambulance service.

“Escalation is always a last resort but in the absence of any real talks from government or employers we have nowhere else to go.”

Mr Hunt made history earlier this year by refusing the formal suggestion of a 1 per cent rise across the board by the health service’s independent pay review body — instead sucking up to Chancellor George Osborne’s ideological public-sector pay freeze.

But Mr Osborne faced embarrassment yesterday after it was revealed he had awarded his Eton-educated special adviser a rise of 19 per cent.

Rupert Harrison, believed to be a personal pal of the Chancellor, is now paid a whopping £95,000 a year.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said news of strike action was “disappointing.”

“We have taken tough decisions to increase the NHS budget, but we can’t afford a consolidated pay rise in addition to increments without risking 10,000 frontline jobs,” she said.