Ambulance crews may not provide basic strike cover

INDIVIDUAL ambulance drivers may become too frustrated with the Government unwillingness to engage with them to provide “life and limb care” during their coming industrial action, a union officer has warned.

Alan Lofthouse, of the Unison union, said staff “may choose not to provide” the life-saving cover during days on which ambulance services will be disrupted by strikes. Life and limb care refers to tending to critical cases such as heart attacks, strokes and sepsis.

Mr Lofthouse told Sky News: “The trouble is, if the Government don’t start talking to us, the staff will get increasingly frustrated with this war against them, as they see the rhetoric from the Government ... and they then may choose not to provide life and limb cover, which is a place that I don’t think

‘Staff will get increasingly frustrated with this war against them as they see the Government rhetoric’

any of us wants to get to.” He added: “So there’s a real urgency for the Government to wake up, stop looking at ways to prevent striking workers from striking and talk to us.”

It is understood individual workers could choose not to provide life and limb cover but union sources said this would be unlikely as strikers do not want to take action that leads to harm.

Britain is braced for the biggest ambulance strike action in 30 years later this month. Tens of thousands of ambulance workers across the country will walk out in the dispute over pay after three unions announced coordinated industrial action with paramedics and 999 emergency call handlers.

Unions and employers remained deadlocked yesterday as two weeks of rolling strikes loom in the run-up to Christmas.

Meanwhile, there were reports 600 military personnel from all three branches of the Armed Forces are to start training to drive ambulances. A further 150 are being readied to act as logistical support, defence sources told The Guardian.

Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, will chair a Cobra committee meeting tomorrow examining how to minimise the strikes’ impact. Plans for military staff and civil servants to cover will be discussed.

Mr Lofthouse warned that the military cannot replace trained ambulance workers without affecting the service.