Hopes of progress in today s NHS pay talks between unions and ministers were dashed with one negotiator describing a Government demand to boost productivity an insult .
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which coordinated two days of strike action in England in December and is plotting two more walkouts this month, originally called for a 19 per cent rise.
Among those supporting a mass walk out were 999 call staff, ambulance technicians and paramedics servicing the North East, North West, South West, Yorkshire and London.