Ambulance staff will walk out on same day as nurses
NHS leaders are warning of the “biggest strike” the service has ever seen as ambulance workers and nurses take part in joint walkouts.
The GMB union is planning four more stoppages – including action on Feb 6 – to coincide with strikes by the Royal College of Nursing.
It is the first time both ambulance staff and the RCN have acted on the same day, heaping pressure on services already under unprecedented strain.
Saffron Cordery, the NHS Providers’ interim chief executive, yesterday called on ministers to negotiate with the unions, saying the threat of combined action was “a huge concern”.
She said: “Trusts have been warning for months that co-ordinated strikes were a possibility if the Government and unions failed to reach an early agreement on this year’s pay award.
“It could be the biggest day of industrial action the NHS has ever seen.”
The announcement yesterday came as nurses embarked on the first day of a two-day strike, involving 55 NHS trusts.
The RCN has already said it will continue to escalate actions, with 73 trusts – around three-quarters of those who won the ballot for strike action – taking part in the next round of strikes.
The combined forces of both unions could mean up to 85,000 health workers take to picket lines.
More than 10,000 ambulance workers, including paramedics and 999 call handlers, will walk out on Feb 6 and 20, and March 6 and 20. The GMB action involves call handlers, emergency care assistants and paramedics at seven out of England’s 10 ambulance trusts.
Rachel Harrison, the GMB national secretary, blamed the “cold, dead hands” of Downing Street for the escalation, saying a pay offer was the only way to resolve the dispute.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that if it wins a ballot of junior doctors, it will announce a threeday walkout in March.
Ms Harrison said the impact on the NHS “would potentially be huge” if the BMA chose to coincide its dates with the ambulance unions’ March strikes. Fur
‘This takes us deep into the situation NHS leaders have been warning against – a war of attrition’
ther ambulance strikes are scheduled on Monday, with Unite expected to announce yet more walkouts after meetings this week.
The GMB negotiator signalled a softening of the union’s demands, saying: “We’ve said to [Steve Barclay] ‘make us an offer’. We were originally asking for inflation-busting and a commitment to restore a decade of lost earnings, and a down payment on that and a retention package. We’re just, at the moment, saying make us an offer – talk to us.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “This escalation takes us deeper in to the situation NHS leaders have been warning against – a war of attrition between the Government and unions at a time when NHS services are seeing unprecedented pressures.”
He said the February strikes would “pose a more significant challenge to services than the industrial action we have seen to date” despite efforts to minimise patient disruption.
Estimates suggest that the first four days of strikes by nurses are likely to see at least 60,000 operations and appointments cancelled, at a time when seven million people are on waiting lists.
On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, insisted that the Government was talking to trade unions in a bid to end strikes.
He said: “As we tackle inflation, we need to be responsible with public sector pay settlements. We have to think about what’s reasonable but also what is affordable for the country.”