EMAS: Strike action across Lincolnshire and Newark
It appears severe disruption was avoided at Lincoln Hospital
Lincoln hospital appeared to avoid severe disruption today as ambulance workers went on strike.
Several unions which cover East Midlands Ambulance Service launched industrial action over pay and working conditions.
Patients in Lincolnshire were cautioned to only to call ambulances for life-threatening problems due to the delays.
That advice appeared to be followed, with no sign of long queues at Accident and Emergency department at Lincoln County Hospital.
The LDRS was told that waiting rooms weren’t especially busy.
The usual queue of ambulances waiting to unload patients outside the hospital was also gone, although the occasional ambulance did blue-light into A&E.
The hospital car park was extremely busy, perhaps suggesting patients followed advice to travel to hospital themselves wherever possible.
Trade union staff formed a picket line outside Lincoln’s Ambulance, Fire and Police Station on South Park.
A total of 2,000 East Midlands ambulance staff walked out across the region, although workers on shift remained on-call to deal with serious Category A calls.,
Health trusts including ULHT declared critical incidents in response to high levels of demand.
The next strike action by EMAS will take place on Wednesday, December 28.
Union staff say that the 4% pay increase from the government means they will take a real-term pay cut.
There were also frustrations with their working conditions, with the gridlocked healthcare system leaving them unable to do their jobs.
Mel a local paramedic with the ambulance service was on the picket line in Lincoln today she says:
"With hospital delays, and trying to get beds we're stuck on the back of ambulances for hours on end. And while that is happening we are unable to attend those who need us most in the community and it's absolutely heartbreaking.
"Attending jobs that don't necessarily need an emergency ambulance, and also being stuck on those jobs where once more we are not able to get to those patients that truly need us."
Ben Holdaway, Director of Operations at EMAS, said the service would attempt to minimise the impact on patients.
“We anticipate that on days where there is industrial action that there will still be fewer ambulances available and therefore our responses to our patients will, inevitably, be much slower on the day,” he said.
“Patients should continue to call for an ambulance as normal if they experience a life-threatening emergency and should continue to access other more appropriate services for any other illnesses or injuries such as NHS111 online or contacting their local Urgent Treatment Centre.
“We fully respect the right of NHS staff to take lawful and peaceful industrial action, however we do urge national employer representatives and trade union colleagues to proactively engage and reach a negotiated settlement to the dispute as quickly as possible.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay's described the walkout as "deeply regrettable" adding patient safety is his "number one priority".
He also acknowledged NHS staff are facing "challenging times" but said meeting their pay demands would take resources away from frontline services.