Thousands of ambulance workers in five services across England will go on a picket line next week amid a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions.
Ambulance workers who are members of Unison will strike on February 10 in London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West.
It means NHS staff will be taking action almost every day next week – while nurses and physiotherapists are also organizing walkouts. February 8 is the only day when patients experience no disturbances.
Unison today called on the government to “act as if the strikes are just going to go away” and offer better wages to ambulance workers.
Ambulance crews strike at Docklands Emergency Operating Centre, Newham Dockside, in London on 23 January 2023
Ambulance staff on the placard line outside the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust control room in Waterloo, London on 23 January 2023
Ambulance workers who are members of Unison will strike on February 10 in London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West
READ MORE £100,000-a-year doctors now being asked if they want industrial action after NHS strikes
The British Medical Association will open an indicative vote to consider whether advisers want to act on pay and pension issues. Although not a formal vote, it represents a significant escalation, the BMA said
In March, Unite threatened more strikes – which could affect every emergency service in England – unless the government reconsiders wages and talks with unions. The goal is a wage increase that counteracts inflation.
It comes after the government yesterday published a blueprint to improve the performance of the NHS, which the Prime Minister said would deliver the “biggest and fastest improvement in emergency waiting times in the history of the NHS”.
The plan called for paramedics to reach an average of 999 callers within 30 minutes from March 2023 – including victims of heart attacks, strokes, burns and epilepsy.
For context, the average response time in December was more than 90 minutes, compared to around 20 minutes before the Covid outbreak.
Unison warned today that the NHS “will not be able to deliver the faster response times and better care promised by the government until ministers step up their efforts to end the growing pay and staffing dispute”.
Sara Gorton, the union’s head of health, said: “Ministers must stop scaring the public with promises of a better NHS without lifting a finger to solve the staffing crisis they face.
“The government should stop playing games. Rishi Sunak wants the public to believe that the ministers are doing everything in their power to settle the dispute. You are not.
There are no wage negotiations and the Prime Minister must stop misleading the public. It’s time for some honesty. Ministers are doing nothing to end the dispute.’
Data from NHS England shows that ambulance transfer delays have fallen to their lowest level this winter. Fewer than one in four (23 percent) ambulance patients waited 30 minutes or more before being transferred to emergency crews last week, up from 36 percent a week earlier (red line).
Just one in 10 ambulance patients (9 per cent) waited more than an hour to be transferred to emergency crews – another record low this winter, down from 19 per cent the previous week
NHS ambulance data for December shows 999 category two callers – including heart attacks, strokes, burns and epilepsy – waited an average of 1 hour, 32 minutes and 54 seconds for paramedics to arrive (shown in red bar). This is five times longer than the target of 18 minutes (shown in green line). This is despite a slight drop in category 2 cases to 368,042 (shown in yellow bar).
While the critically ill patients and 999 callers have had access to immediate treatment and transport on earlier strike days this winter, others have little choice but to go to hospital themselves.
The unions protected life and limb during the action.
The first day of strikes next week, on February 6, has been dubbed the NHS’s ‘D-Day’. Thousands more 999 workers and nurses will leave the country in what is expected to be the largest strike in the health care system’s 74-year history.
Nurses are also on strike on 7 February, physiotherapists on 9 February and ambulance workers on 10 February.
It comes as Health Secretary Steve Barclay will be grilled by MPs on the Health and Social Care Select Committee today over the government’s handling of pay disputes with NHS workers.
Source link
Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
