As cars honked support for picketing paramedics, Barclay’s accusation that unions chose ‘to inflict harm’ set a bitter tone
s dawn broke, the life-and-death stakes of the biggest ambulance strike since 1990 became clear. While picketing paramedics from Gateshead to Cardiff welcomed honks of support from passing drivers, one ambulance trust boss asked people to only dial 999 after asking themselves: “Do I feel like I am going to die?”England’s medical director, informed breakfast-time radio listeners on Wednesday how clinicians would need to weigh up whether to send ambulances to people suffering strokes.
Twenty-four-hour strikes were launched from midnight on Tuesday across several areas of England and Wales alongside 12-hour strikes in other regions. Unison, Unite and the GMB unions had agreed to attend– the most life-threatening cases – while some ambulance trusts agreed exemptions for specific incidents within category 2 calls – such as strokes.
Some picket lines were quickly depleted as strikers were called away to answer life-threatening calls, but seven out of 10 ambulance services in England declared critical incidents – meaning a service has lost “its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe”.
Across picket lines paramedics argued delays to treatment caused by the strike were little different to those caused by routine NHS logjams. Pay was an important factor in the strikes – unions want more than the average increase of 4.75% – but conditions in the health service were often more salient.
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