Thousands of health care workers in the province may walk off the job in less than a week.

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union filed its strike notice with the provincial government today. Union members will be in a legal position to strike next Wednesday, April 25 at 12:01 a.m.

The union includes 3,600 lab workers, practical nurses, therapists and others.

The union says it's willing to go back to the table but there are no talks scheduled.

The two sides are divided over wages.

In the meantime, Capital Health is already closing beds in anticipation of the potential dramatic reduction in staff.

"We would have the hospital come down to some lower levels than we currently operate at. So we'd like to at least be able to close about 100 beds, so that we would then be able to manage the emergencies and trauma that come through the door," said Barbara Hall, Capital Health's vice-president.

Diagnostic imaging appointments will continue until Tuesday. But those services will be reduced to emergencies only during a strike.

Blood collection will scale back to ongoing and urgent cases.

Surgeries will also be impacted.

"At Capital Health, we do about 120 surgeries a day, so for every day there's a strike, we'll be cancelling 130 elective type surgeries," said David Kirkpatrick, chief of surgery.

Starting Tuesday, surgeries will be reduced to emergencies only, he said.

Sheree Carigan lives at the rehab centre where she's receiving treatment for a head injury and a stroke.

"I'm a little apprehensive about how the patients are going to treated, how we're going to be affected, if we're going to get the good care that we normally get," she said.

The health authority says it will call all patients who have scheduled appointments or surgeries that are affected by the strike.