Ambulance staff announce ANOTHER strike day: February 10 action will affect five regions of England

Thousands of ambulance workers in five services across England will take to picket lines next week as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

Ambulance workers who are members of Unison will strike in London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West on February 10. 

It means NHS workers are taking action nearly every day next week — with nurses and physiotherapists also staging walkouts. February 8 is the only day patients are not set to face disruption. 

Unison today urged the Government to ‘stop pretending the strikes will simply go away’ and offer ambulance staff better pay.

Ambulance workers who are members of Unison will strike in London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West on February 10 

Unite threatened to continue striking into March unless the Government has a ‘major rethink’ over pay and enters into talks with unions. It is seeking an inflation-busting salary increase.

It comes after the Government yesterday released a blueprint for boosting NHS performance, which the Prime Minister said would deliver the ‘largest and fastest-ever improvement in emergency waiting times in the NHS’s history’.

The plan set out that paramedics should reach category two 999 callers — which includes heart attack, strokes, burns and epilepsy victims — within 30 minutes, on average, from March 2023.

For context, the average response time in December was more than 90 minutes, compared to around 20 minutes before Covid struck. 

Unison today warned that the NHS ‘won’t be able to deliver the speedier response times and better care the Government is promising until ministers try harder to end the growing dispute about pay and staffing’. 

Sara Gorton, head of health at the union, said: ‘Ministers must stop fobbing the public off with promises of a better NHS, while not lifting a finger to solve the staffing emergency staring them in the face.

‘The Government must stop playing games. Rishi Sunak wants the public to believe ministers are doing all they can to resolve the dispute. They’re not.

‘There are no pay talks, and the prime minister must stop trying to hoodwink the public. It’s time for some honesty. Ministers are doing precisely nothing to end the dispute.’ 

Although the most seriously ill patients and 999 callers have been able to access swift treatment and transport on previous strike days this winter, others have been left with no choice but to make their own way to hospital.

Unions have ensured emergency life and limb cover is in place during the action. 

Among the strikes next week is February 6, which has been described as the NHS’s ‘D-Day’. Thousands of other 999 workers and nurses are also expected to walk out. It is expected to be the biggest strike action in the health service’s 74- history.