Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where a planned national NHS strike has gone ahead, with up to 3,000 health workers staging industrial action.
The strike, which will last for up to 12 hours on Thursday, includes 450 ambulance staff and involves the Unite and GMB unions.
Unite’s health officer, Kevin McAdam, said: “Our senior representatives met on Wednesday to consider the developments in the negotiations between the health unions and the English Department of Health.
“Our industrial committee concluded that due to the inaction of the health department here [Northern Ireland] and their unwillingness to engage with the unions, the strike action on Thursday would go ahead.”
He said Unite members “have been refused the pay review body’s recommendation of 1% from April 2014”.
The other health union, Unison, is not striking but is to ballot its members across Northern Ireland for industrial action over pay.
The Department of Health in Northern Ireland said it had put in place contingency plans to cope with the stoppage, which was to begin at noon.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “Industrial action in England has been called off following mutual agreement which will not risk frontline jobs or involve any increased cost to the taxpayer.”
The department’s statement added that arrangements were in place to ensure that patient safety was not compromised during the strike.
