"Lives are being put at risk" - Ambulance service staff strike across Cornwall
Paramedics from South Western Ambulance Service are calling for better pay and staffing levels
Last updated 21st Dec 2022
Hundreds of ambulance workers from two unions are striking across Cornwall amid the long-running dispute over pay and staffing levels.
Those taking action say it's all about patient safety and the future of the health service.
John Veall, a paramedic who has worked for the ambulance service since 1999, attended the picket line outside Redruth Community Hospital today. He told us: "Doing nothing has created a situation where patients just aren't being cared for at the moment so we want to be able to look after our patients".
John added: "I've been in the ambulance service for 24 years and I've never known it be so bad for patients in Cornwall. Most of the time we spend it at Treliske queuing so we're not actually available to go out and help patients.
"While we're being told we're putting lives at risk today.
"Lives are being put at risk everyday"
Retired GP Dr Alison Durkin, and her husband Ross, had to drive 300 miles to get the help they needed. She says the pressure on staff is "just awful".
Talking about her experience, Alison said: "It was a six-hour journey. I was really feeling quite poorly. Unfortunately, the pressure down in Cornwall, we only have one hospital in the whole county, and it's been under pressure for years".
Alison continued: "There were thirty ambulances outside when I went in in July and it's just the same now.
"I'm heartbroken. These professions, these jobs, they're vocational. People go into them because they want to care for people and do good things. Because of all this build-up of steam in the system really, it's like a pressure cooker. They can't do the jobs that they want to do, that they're trained to do. It's so frustrating for them".
Along with Unison unions striking in Cornwall, GMB union strikers also took action this morning in Cornwall.
From Unison, one of the Unions taking strike action, Andy Perris has worked as a south-west paramedic for two decades, told us: "It is the worst I've ever seen it. Only five, ten years ago we didn't hold emergency calls without a response.
"We always had someone eventually to respond. We didn't have tens of ambulances waiting outside hospital. People I think will have a story of, we waited a very long time for an ambulance".
Thousands of paramedics across nine NHS trusts across the whole country are walking out today in the latest round of health sector strikes.
In Cornwall - action will last from 12pm until 12am.
Andy continued: "It's so bleak. When I joined the service, you were proud of the service you provided, and you had the tools to do the job. Now that is not the case".
"I'm not proud of the service we provide"
"It's not through any fault of the people who are involved in it. We do not have the resources to do as we should".