[Basic_Strategy]

Going on strike to demand higher pay because of inflation marks the start of inflation vicious cycle
...that was what killed the UK economy in 1970s.

Until Thatcher fought the unions and closed them.

Want to ask for pay wait until inflation cools.off

Thing is Thatcher didn't fight all the unions, and she fought from a position of strength. 

When she crushed the miners' unions and Arthur Scargill, she did so when the government had ample coal stockpiles, and she did so at the start of spring after winter ended so the miners couldn't hold the country hostage to energy demands for heating. 

UK healthcare in its current form is on its last legs and collapsing. They don't have enough nurses and doctors joining every year to neutralise the attrition rate. There's no win-win scenario to be had here. Best option for the Tories is to make it lose-lose and burn the whole system down before losing the next GE to Labour and letting them inherit a mess they cannot have any hope of fixing.