Doctors could be forced to work on strike days under government plans to introduce minimum safe staffing levels in hospitals.

The Department of Health is launching a consultation on extending recent legislation to cover more healthcare workers as consultants begin a two-day strike today.

Consultants have so far this year held four days of industrial action and junior doctors 19 days.

Junior doctors will start their next three-day strike tomorrow, meaning they will walk out at the same time as consultants for the first time.

Health leaders have expressed concerns about the ‘nightmare scenario’ and revealed some patients are now having operations postponed two or more times due to industrial action, including growing numbers with cancer.

Strikes have so far cost the NHS around £1billion and the number of cancelled appointments and operations is expected to hit one million by the end of this week.

The consultation considers introducing minimum service levels that would cover ‘urgent, emergency and time-critical hospital-based health services’.

It follows a consultation earlier this year on introducing minimum service levels in ambulance services, and would bring the UK in line with countries such as France and Italy whose services continue in times of industrial action. 

Ministers believe minimum service levels will provide a better balance between supporting the ability of workers to strike with the safety of the public.

Consultants and junior doctors will walk out together again on October 2, 3 and 4, which coincides with the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

The NHS is expected to see a ‘Christmas Day’ level of staffing when both groups are off, with emergency care as priority.

The Government has given a 6 per cent pay rise to consultants and the same plus a lump sum of £1,250 for junior doctors, and has said there will be no further offers. 

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: ‘Strikes can’t become the status quo. Only the Government sitting down with the unions can end this disruption.’

Air pollution increased in Glasgow after the introduction of the low emission zone (LEZ) in June, it has emerged.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) rose in the city centre after older cars and vans were banned from the zone, compared with the same period last year.

SNP-led Glasgow City Council claimed on its website that ‘harmful nitrogen dioxide is being recorded in our city centre at levels that do not meet the legal requirements’.

But testing on Hope Street showed that in the past two years NO2 levels have not exceeded the illegal mark, and have in fact gone up since June when compared with last year.

Levels were, on average, 31 micrograms per cubic metre in June, July and August last year but were 34 this year. The legal limit is 40.

Yesterday an air quality expert told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘Buses are the main polluters, hence the reason levels remain more or less the same as before, and therefore you have to question the point of banning cars.’

Scottish Tory deputy transport spokesman Graham Simpson said that if the figures are worse, the LEZ scheme ‘has to be seen as a failure’.

Glasgow City Council said pollution levels ‘are highly variable and dependent on a number of factors, including weather patterns’.

In June the SNP ramped up its war on motorists and now thousands of drivers risk punishing fines if they travel into Glasgow city centre.

Cars, vans, buses and lorries could be slapped with fines of £60 if they fall foul of the strict new environmental rules.

Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone (LEZ) – which bans older vehicles from the city’s roads – was given the green light despite a last-ditch court bid to stop it.

It meant more than 730,000 vehicles registered in Scotland were not ‘green’ enough to enter the zone unpunished.

Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are due to follow suit with their own LEZs in June next year.

SNP-run Glasgow Council claimed the drastic measures are necessary because air pollution in the city centre has long been above the legal requirement for ‘green’ environmental targets. 

But Steven Grant, Unite Glasgow cab section secretary, argued the electrification of buses – which the council said was responsible for 70 per cent of the limit-breaking emissions – brought pollution well below the legal threshold. 

He said at the time: ‘This damaging and punitive plan is going to be devastating for our trade, without a shadow of a doubt.

‘Frustrated taxi drivers are asking, ‘Why are we being punished when the air monitoring shows Glasgow is now below the legal threshold?’

More than half of the city’s 1,421 black cabs do not comply with LEZ requirements so will be forced off the road in the next year. 

Government borrowing costs soared to Liz Truss-era levels yesterday as mounting concerns about inflation set the scene for yet more interest rate rises.

Official figures showed inflation in the UK fell to 8.7 per cent in April, from 10.1 per cent in March and a peak of 11.1 per cent last year.

But it was still above the 8.2 per cent pencilled in by investors, and so-called ‘core’ inflation – which strips out energy prices – jumped from 6.2 per cent to a 31-year high of 6.8 per cent. 

The report from the Office for National Statistics sent tremors through the bond markets as investors bet that interest rates could hit 5.5 per cent this year – far higher than previously thought.

Two-year gilt yields, a key measure of Government borrowing costs, jumped to 4.39 per cent – the highest level since the turmoil that followed the disastrous mini-Budget of Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng last year. 

The yield was around 3.2 per cent just two months ago and yesterday’s rise was also the biggest since the Truss-Kwarteng debacle. 

Five-year and ten-year gilt yields also jumped to their highest levels since October at over 4 per cent, while the pound made gains against the dollar and the euro before easing.

Rob Clarry, investment strategist at wealth manager Evelyn Partners, said the reaction on the bond markets was ‘instant’ as traders bet on further rate hikes – dashing hopes that borrowing costs were at or close to their peak.

Bond yields surged under Truss as global markets fretted over how Britain could afford her plans to cut taxes and help households with energy bills. 

The turmoil sent the cost of mortgages and other loans soaring. But, having fallen under Truss’s successor Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt – Kwarteng’s replacement as Chancellor – borrowing costs are rising again.

The Bank of England has already raised interest rates 12 times since December 2021, taking them from 0.1 per cent to 4.5 per cent.

It was hoped that rates were not at or close to a peak. But with inflation higher than feared, investors now see a 100 per cent chance that rates will rise to at least 4.75 per cent in June.

Further hikes to 5 per cent in August and possibly as high as 5.5 per cent later in the year are also on the cards.

‘Bond markets took one look at the latest inflation figures and took the view that interest rates are going to keep going up,’ said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. 

‘Sticky inflationary pressures, particularly in food, will strengthen the argument for the Bank of England to raise rates again.

‘That will bring more pain to companies and consumers as the cost of servicing borrowings becomes more expensive.’

The pound rose back towards $1.25 and €1.16 before giving up its gains following a strong run so far this year.

‘The reason that you haven’t seen more of a reaction today is the context,’ said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at trading platform eToro. ‘The pound’s already had a big rally this year.’

He added that growing concerns about the health of the global economy were boosting the dollar, which is often seen as a safe asset in times of strife.