Nursing leaders today warn Rishi Sunak he faces punishment at the ballot box if he fails to end their pay dispute.
Pat Cullen said nurses are returning to picket lines as a “cry for help” as the Tories refuse to budge on wages.
In an article for the Mirror, she urged ministers to get back around the negotiating table or suffer a backlash from voters.
The Royal College of Nursing general secretary said: “Politicians might be here today and gone tomorrow.
“But the public knows that nurses are with them through thick and thin, day and night, when young and old.”
RCN members will stage a 48-hour walkout in a fortnight that will involve more hospital staff than ever before after they rejected the government’s pay offer.
Ms Cullen wrote: “England’s nurses have diagnosed a serious problem with Rishi Sunak. The majority think he still isn’t valuing them or the NHS like he should.
“And what’s worse for him is that the public know it too. With just days until his first big test at the ballot box, the vast majority are still backing nursing staff in our fight for fairness.”
Voters will go to the polls on May 4 in local elections when 8,141 council seats are up for grabs in 230 councils across England.
The Conservatives are expected to suffer losses as they are punished by the electorate for their botched running of the country.
Labour’s Wes Streeting demanded the Prime Minister “step in” to bring an end to the deadlock between the Government and health unions.
The Shadow Health Secretary said Mr Sunak had been "completely absent" from dealing with the long-running NHS pay dispute.
Official figures show 195,000 operations and appointments were cancelled during the four-day junior doctors’ strike last week.
It means a total of more than half a million NHS consultations have been rescheduled due to industrial action since last December.
In the Commons, Mr Streeting branded Health Secretary Steve Barclay the “invisible man” as he urged him to bring in conciliation service Acas to mediate an end to the walkouts.
He said: “Patients can't afford to lose more days to strike. The NHS can't afford more days lost to strikes.
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“Staff can't afford more days lost to strikes. So isn't it time for him to swallow his pride, admit he has failed and bring Acas in to mediate an end to the junior doctors' strike?"
The RCN has said it will stage a 48-hour strike from 8pm on Sunday 30 April to 8pm on Tuesday 2 May, which will include the Bank Holiday Monday.
It will be the biggest action to date as it will involve nursing staff working in emergency departments, intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempt.
The union then plans to hold a ballot on a further six months of possible strikes across England, which could last until Christmas.
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