Thousands of ambulance workers across England and Wales went on strike on Wednesday as they left their services and joined picket lines to demand pay rises and better working conditions in the biggest labor unrest to hit Britain’s emergency services in decades.
The strike, a three-union effort expected to involve more than 20,000 workers, is the latest multi-industry strike in recent weeks in Britain amid a deepening cost-of-living crisis spurred by inflation at double digits, gripping the country . On Tuesday, nurses went on strike over wages that failed to keep up with inflation, and railway workers and border guards will do the same this week.
In ambulance services, workers have raised the alarm about record delays for patients needing emergency treatment, and paramedics have pointed to staff shortages and burnout, as well as fears of being late to help some callers.
Those problems have been exacerbated by entrenched problems within the National Health Service, where a large number of job openings has led to backlogs and long wait times in hospital emergency departments. Healthcare workers are exhausted after working under highly stressful conditions during the pandemic, which also put their own lives at risk, and amid years of austerity measures that eroded public services following the 2009 financial crisis.
“We just can’t handle the number of calls,” said Antonia Gosnell, 53, who has worked as a paramedic for 33 years and was on a picket line in south London on Wednesday afternoon. “They all came to clap for us during the pandemic, and now there’s no one here listening to what we want.”
The ambulance services prioritized the most critical cases throughout the day. Before the strike, some hospitals were asking people to arrange their own transportation to hospitals, including pregnant women going into labor. Patients who required non-emergency care were advised to seek advice elsewhere, including by telephone or from their GP or pharmacist.
With Christmas and New Year celebrations approaching, health leaders urged people to avoid risky behavior on a day when services would be stretched. “Don’t get so drunk that you have an unnecessary visit to A. & E.,” Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director for England, said in a BBC interview, referring to hospital accident and emergency departments.
Before the strike, health service management said there were “deep concerns” about possible harm to patients at a time when the service was already under significant pressure.
“This is not something NHS leaders would ever say lightly, but some are telling us now that they cannot guarantee patient safety tomorrow,” said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the service’s organizations in England. Tuesday.
The NHS planned to contain the strikes by bringing in military personnel and volunteers, increasing call center staff and, where possible, discharging patients from hospitals to free up beds for patients arriving in the reduced number of ambulances in use used to be.
Unions representing ambulance workers blamed the government for the standoff. Workers argue that a £1,400 wage increase – about 2 to 7 per cent – proposed by a government appraisal body amounts to a cut in real terms. Inflation in the country has risen to a whopping 11.1 percent in recent months, the highest in four decades.
“None of them want to be here, but if we don’t take a stand now, the ambulance service will just crumble and die,” Unison union general secretary Christina McAnea said from a strike post in south London.
In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, England’s NHS leaders said it is clear for health reasons that we have entered dangerous territory.
“We urge you to do everything you can to reach an agreed solution,” they said. “Otherwise more citizens will suffer needlessly.”
Mr Sunak called the union action disappointing and threatened to impose laws that would limit the reach of unions.
Despite concerns about the impact of the strikes, some people affected by delays in ambulance services expressed their sympathy for the workers.
In north London, a local resident, Robin Lockyer, 65, said as he walked to work on Wednesday morning that his father had been waiting seven hours for an ambulance after recently breaking his hip. “He’s 86 – it was really traumatic for him,” Mr Lockyer said. “But I don’t blame the ambulance service,” he added. “I blame the government.”
“The government is taking a strange position,” Lockyer said. “And I think there’s going to be a lot more action.”
Saskia Solomon reporting contributed.