More than 10,000 healthcare workers will go on strike in Victoria, forcing hospital bed closures and surgery cancellations.
They're calling for a wage increase in line with inflation and claim the government has stalled negotiations.
The Allan government is keen to show off Frankston's new hospital but on the ground healthcare workers are calling for a 6 per cent wage increase.
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Jake McGuinness from the HWU said: "We've been negotiating now for 13 months, and we've still yet to get a payoff for overinflation."
Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said: "We are now in the Fair Work Commission seeking their assistance to resolve that agreement."
Workers, including orderlies, theatre technicians and cleaners, will go on strike on Tuesday.
But the problems are already piling up.
At St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, staff are refusing to clean non-clinical spaces while across more than 80 health services, one in four hospital beds are now closed.
Thousands of surgeries will be cancelled, the union says.
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Thomas said it's "a small number of cat two or three planned surgeries rescheduled across the state."
"If they're telling you that a category two or three surgery that you might have waited for six months or more is not that important and is not worthy of the minister's attention, then that shows the callous disregard this government has for health workers and patients in this state," McGuinness said.
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Tuesday's strike is only expected to last the day, but bed closures and surgery cancellations will continue until February and if, by then, a deal still hasn't been reached, the union is hinting at indefinite strikes.
The only hospitals unaffected by the strike action are those in towns ravaged by bushfires.