More than 10,000 ambulance staff in England and Wales join latest wave of strikes
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Pregnant women are being advised not to give birth at home as thousands of ambulance staff across England and Wales take part in planned strike action over pay and conditions.
Expectant mothers are being told there is “no guarantee” an ambulance or paramedics will come to their home during strikes, with the action likely to pose a risk to patient safety.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has accused unions of making a “conscious decision” to “harm” patients, while union bosses say it is “quite likely” that strikes will continue into the new year as the NHS “disintegrates” under the government.
“We are taking strike action because [ambulance staff] they are not being paid enough to do the really important and critical work that they do,” Unison general secretary Christina Makanea said on Wednesday.
“This government must tell the truth. They need to tell the British public the truth that they are unable to deliver a safe and sustainable NHS and it is shocking that they are trying to blame our members.
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The union boss says the strikes could continue into the new year with more staff
Christina Makanea, general secretary of the Unison union, said their members could continue strike action into the new year if the government did not negotiate.
She told the PA news agency: “I sincerely hope that today’s action – which we all wanted to avoid – will be enough to say to the government, cancel it and stop spreading all this aggressive, misleading information about the strikes and the ambulance workers , and sit down to talk to us in a rational way.
“If that doesn’t happen then we will look at our tactics going forward and I think we will have no alternative but to escalate and take further action in the new year.”
She added that although staff would still be responding to emergency calls, many others – such as 999 operators and triage workers – could also join future strikes.
“We wouldn’t want to take them out on strike, but we will talk to them if they want to,” she said. “It wouldn’t be my decision. It will be the members who provide the services – they will decide if they want to escalate it.”
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 1:40 pm
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In pictures: Ambulance workers strike across England
Thousands of ambulance workers are on strike in England and Wales today over a dispute with the government over pay and working conditions.
Staff in London, Coventry, Liverpool and elsewhere are only responding to emergency calls, with the public advised to avoid risks and “use common sense” during strikes.
(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)
Unite members wave a banner calling for a pay rise for NHS staff
(Joseph Walsh SWNS)
(PA)
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 1:15 pm
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Unions furious as health minister says they ‘chose to do harm’
Unions have expressed anger at comments about ambulance strikes by Health Secretary Steve Barclay.
He said the unions had made a “conscious choice to harm” patients in comments made to The Daily Telegraph.
Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB union, said: “Ambulance staff are fuming at such a crude, insulting attempt to deflect attention from the government’s ongoing chaos in the NHS.
“The public knows that it was not the ambulance staff who managed a decade of failure. Already today, paramedics and ambulances left convoys to make emergency calls.
“They will always put the community first. It is time for the government to follow suit.”
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 1:05 pm
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Union leader accuses Health Secretary Steve Barclay of ‘complete and utter fabrication’
Christina Makanea, general secretary of Unison, accused Health Secretary Steve Barclay of a “complete and utter fabrication” amid strikes.
She told a picket in Waterloo, London on Wednesday: “I saw the Secretary of State yesterday and he didn’t want to talk to us about pay. He made it absolutely clear that he wasn’t going to talk to us about pay, but other than that (it was) a reasonably friendly meeting.
She said she explained to him how they made the strikes safe across the country and he “acknowledged that.”
“So when I saw what he had written last night and what he said today, I was completely blown away by it. This is a complete and utter fabrication.
“He knows very well that we’ve been negotiating for the last two or three weeks that when our members take strike action to put in place contingency plans and offer something else, it’s just disgraceful – it’s fear-mongering, it’s driving people to be even more afraid than they are now.
“If anyone is responsible for the things that are happening, it’s the government in Westminster who have steadfastly refused to talk to us about anything to do with pay.”
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 1:00 p.m
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Scottish nurses and midwives reject government pay offer
Nurses and midwives in Scotland have rejected the Government’s latest pay offer.
More than 60 per cent of the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives voted against the latest proposal, which they said did little to improve pay.
Jackie Lambert, RCM director for Scotland, said: “Our members have spoken loud and clear – the latest pay offer from the Scottish Government is simply not good enough. This does not come close to tackling the rising cost of living and will mean that many midwives are indeed worse off in real terms.
Julie Lambert, chairman of the board of RCN Scotland, said: We firmly rejected what the Scottish Government said was its “best and final” proposal.
“Make no mistake – we don’t want to go on strike. Years of being undervalued and understaffed have left us feeling like we have no alternative because enough is enough. The ball is in the Scottish Government’s court if strike action is to be avoided.
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 12:40 pm
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More than 650 people are waiting for an ambulance in the West Midlands
More than 650 people are currently waiting for an ambulance to arrive in the West Midlands.
At 6.30pm last night, the number of 999 calls waiting for an ambulance stood at 654 in the West Midlands region, with more than 100 of the service’s 340 ambulances waiting outside the hospital for more than 30 minutes, according to Birmingham Live.
West Midlands residents are being reassured that the ambulance service will continue to respond to life-threatening incidents on Wednesday, despite strike action.
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 at 12:19 pm
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Paramedic says patients’ lives have been at risk ‘longer than strike was even considered’
A Nottinghamshire-based paramedic said patients’ lives had been at risk “for longer than these strikes have even been considered” following Wednesday’s strike action.
Tom, 33, has been a paramedic at East Midlands Ambulance for five years and said he would strike if he was on duty.
“I have treated elderly patients who have been on the floor with broken hips for over 20 hours. They waited so long that their limbs started to necrotize (dying tissue), which led to major surgery to remove those limbs,” he told the PA news agency.
“For 14 hours I saw and treated one of my patients and I had no rest… And at one point there were 11 ambulances stuck at (the hospital) that couldn’t be released back on the road.
“The conditions we regularly work in prevent us from doing the work we want to do to its full capacity and puts patients’ lives at risk long before a strike is even considered… We regularly go 12, 13, 14 , 15, 16 hours without a break or even as much as a cup or some hot food, or any food at all, because of these delays.
“The amazing ambulance service is one that has very little to do with the grand scheme of things but hopefully has a big impact on highlighting the already failing NHS that we so desperately need to value and invest in.”
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 11:50 am
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Single dad and EMT says he ‘made less than he did working in a call center’
An emergency doctor and single father from Cardiff, Wales, said he earns “less now” than when he was “working in a call centre”.
Harry Muskers, 34, an emergency doctor for three years, said: “I have made the difficult decision to come to work to strike in civilian clothes. I will not be answering critical calls like many of my colleagues who do the same.
“All the calls we answer on a daily basis are critical anyway, so … every shift feels like a strike because most of the time we don’t answer calls.”
He said spending time waiting outside the hospital for a free bed was “demoralizing” and “the back of an ambulance is no place to toilet someone, to wash someone, to comfort someone in trouble”.
“I make less now than I did when I was 20 years old working in a call center, and believe me, I go through a lot more trauma in that job,” he continued.
“I’m a single dad, but I’m lucky, I have a strong support network and family around me. But I know people in much worse off who have to use food banks.
“One day you’re saving someone’s life or holding someone’s hand because their son killed himself upstairs. The next day you go to a food bank because you can’t eat. This is no longer a joke and something needs to change.
“Working not for the money is all well and good, but it doesn’t pay your mortgage or put food on your child’s table.”
Furvah Shah December 21, 2022 11:40 am
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In pictures: Ambulance staff strike in London
Ambulance workers in London are on strike this morning amid a dispute with the government over pay and working conditions.
(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)
(AFP…
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