(Bloomberg) -- Ambulance workers announced another strike for next week as unions ramped up their attack on the UK government’s management of the National Health Service.

As many as 15,000 ambulance staff will walk out on Feb. 10, the Unison labor group said Tuesday, as part of a dispute over below-inflation pay raises. They were already due to strike on Feb. 6 alongside thousands of nurses whose protest extends to Feb. 7.

Unison said there will be NHS strikes on every weekday next week except Wednesday, with physiotherapists walking out on Feb. 9.

“Ministers must stop fobbing the public off with promises of a better NHS, while not lifting a finger to solve the staffing emergency staring them in the face,” said Unison’s head of health, Sara Gorton.

Earlier Tuesday the head of the NHS pay review body, which is at the center of a row over real-terms salary cuts to staff, said the government had missed a deadline to provide evidence toward 2023’s decision.

Ministers have insisted they cannot increase the pay review body’s recommendation for 2022 and urged unions to consider next year’s raise instead. Unions argue that years of pay erosion have created a large number of vacancies in the NHS.

Consultants

Senior doctors could become the latest health professionals to go on strike, meanwhile, as the country is beset by another wave of industrial action.

The British Medical Association said Tuesday that it would hold a consultative ballot of consultants in the NHS next month. It’s the first step toward a statutory vote, which could then lead to a strike.

The BMA is also balloting junior doctors over potential strike action, in a vote that opened on Jan. 9 and is due to close on Feb. 20.

“The NHS is at severe risk of losing its most senior doctors,” the BMA said, blaming below-inflation pay rises and tax rules around consultants’ pensions.

Dieticians are also being balloted as industrial strife spreads through a health service which is under strain from seasonal flu and waiting lists.

As many as 475,000 workers outside the NHS could strike Wednesday, including teachers and train drivers, as Britain’s public sector employees escalate their protests against real-terms pay cuts. Inflation in the UK remains in double digits, and food prices are rising sharply.

--With assistance from Alex Morales.

(Adds details on new ambulance strike from the start.)

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