Nurses’ strikes are set to disrupt 17 hospitals owned by the country’s largest private health provider, as record public sector pay rises fuel private sector demands across the industry and spur fears of prolonging inflation.

More than 1000 nurses and midwives at Ramsay Health Care hospitals across NSW will walk off the job for 24 hours on Tuesday in support of a 20 per cent wage increase over three years and “safe staffing levels”. The nurses, many of whom are also Ramsay shareholders, will protest at the company’s annual meeting on the same day.