Crews still queuing for hours with no breaks: Ambulance workers strike in East Yorkshire

Today is the second time in two months Yorkshire Ambulance workers have gone on strike over pay and conditions.

GMB union members are striking in Goole, elsewhere in East Yorkshire workers and Unison members are outside the ambulance station in Sutton Fields in Hull.

Members at Unison say the poor conditions that ambulance staff have to work in hasn’t got any better with crews still queueing for eight to nine hours at hospitals waiting to hand patients over.

Wendy Smith, Emergency Care Assistant, Unison representative, said:

“We had an idea we were going to strike again because they wouldn’t have talks with the unions. Crews don’t want to strike; they are still available for category one calls which include life and limb cover. So, if anyone does need an ambulance desperately, they will get one today.

“Its just the same, it hasn’t got any better, crews are still queuing for hours and hours not getting meal breaks, patients are stuck on ambulances for 8/9 hours at a time, it’s not fair on them.

“We’d like the government to open talks with us and try and resolve this. It’s also about patient care as well as pay. We’re concerned with staff welfare; they’re drained and becoming ill because of a poor immune system.

“If the government don’t sit down and talk, we will continue to strike not because we want to, but we need to, we need the NHS to be back to how it was.

NHS Providers has warned the NHS will be hit harder by Wednesday's strike than one held in December as more staff, including call handlers, go on strike. But Wendy says the last strike didn’t have much impact on people. She added:

“Ambulances were still responding to life and limb cover last time – they were getting an ambulance a lot quicker because crews weren’t stuck at hospital for 8/9 hours with a patient. It didn’t really have any detrimental effect to the public.”

NHS England has told patients to continue to call 999 for life-threatening emergencies but to use 111, GPs and pharmacies for non-urgent needs.

It said some people may be asked to make their own way to hospital, though it urged people to seek medical advice from 111 or 999 before doing so.

Ambulance workers in England and Wales are demanding a pay rise above inflation. The Government say most ambulance staff have received a pay rise of at least 4%.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:

"Today's ambulance strike is an unwelcome return to unnecessary disruption and comes at a time when the NHS is already under huge pressure from Covid and flu.

"While we have contingency plans in place, including support from the military, community first responders and extra call handlers, to mitigate risks to patient safety, there will inevitably be some disruption for patients with fewer ambulances on the road."