Hospitals across the country are being warned to prepare for potential fuel shortages this winter, a minister has revealed.
Kit Malthouse said the government had ordered NHS bosses to make sure their “generators are properly serviced” and “diesel tanks are full” ahead of a possible energy supply crisis.
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster warned that the country faces “a particular challenge” this winter of three potential crises colliding.
He told TalkTV’s The News Desk: “My job is to make sure that all the departments are preparing themselves for what government calls a reasonable worst-case scenario.
“We are making plans obviously for all sorts of contingencies across public services, particularly in critical areas like health.
“So, for example, one of the plans we talk about is coincidence of events, but we need to make sure that all those hospitals that need access to power have their standby generators properly serviced, they’ve got diesel tanks full with diesel that might be required.
“The work they need to do to make sure that they’re resilient from a power and energy point of view has been done before we get to say November when the winter starts.”
There are serious concerns that with Russia tightening the screw on gas supplies to Europe it will lead to winter shortages.
While the UK gets very little energy from Russia, the country is still heavily exposed to soaring prices.
Malthouse also told presenter Tom Newton Dunn that the government was preparing emergency plans for hospitals if nurses walk out on strike.
Malthouse added: “I don’t think nurses are going to walk off the job and leave patients unattended to in hospital. But if they do, and I hope they don’t decide to go for strike action, but if they do thhave to be contingency plans in place to deal with that.”
Nurses will start voting next month on whether to strike over pay in what is being described as a “defining moment” for the profession.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it will be recommending hundreds of thousands of its members support industrial action in a ballot that opens in mid-September.
The postal ballot will ask RCN members working for the NHS in England and Wales on Agenda for Change contracts if they will take strike action which involves a complete withdrawal of labour.
If its members support strike action, it will be the first ever strike by RCN members in England or Wales.
The college has called for a pay rise for nursing staff of 5 per cent above RPI inflation, which is currently 11.8 per cent.
It comes amid a worsening NHS crisis with reports that armed police are being sent to save the lives of people in cardiac arrest because ambulances “can’t cope” with demand.
Staff shortages across the NHS are widespread and have been exacerbated by post-pandemic burnout.