Paramedics at the Waterloo ambulance station will strike on Wednesday, December 21, in a bid to secure improved pay and conditions.
From midday until midnight, UNISON members working for the London Ambulance Service will continue to offer “life and limb cover” but cut back on non-emergency response.
A UNISON spokesperson said the government’s 4.75 per cent salary increase offer would “deepen the severe staffing crisis” and “put patients’ lives at risk”.
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According to the College of Paramedics, pay is often highlighted “as a reason for leaving and a potential tool for retaining existing staff.”
In a public statement, a UNISON representative said: “We know that our members never take the decision to strike lightly, but the failure of the government to meet with the trade unions and to engage in genuine talks about NHS pay… means it’s the government that are putting patients’ lives at risk on a daily basis, not our members who are taking strike action.”
Patients involved in category one or two incidents, from heart attacks and sepsis to strokes, will still be attended to.
But those who come under ‘less severe’ categories, including mothers in the late stages of labour or elderly people who have had a fall, may not get an ambulance.
From 2021 to 2022 in Southwark, the average response time for category two incidents, including strokes and heart attacks, was already over 25 minutes, well beyond the eighteen-minute guideline, according to NHS data.
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In September, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood Helen Hayes said soaring ambulance response times were creating “fear and anxiety” for her constituents.
Speaking to the News about the latest round of strikes, she said: “I support the right of public sectors to take industrial action.
“We’re seeing strike action across lots of very different public services. These are the Tory government’s strikes – a failure of the Conservatives to take care of public sector workers in the first place.
“Anybody working in healthcare doesn’t strike because they want to strike – it’s because it’s an absolute last resort.”
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “Our staff and service are already under significant pressure.
“Should the industrial action go ahead, we will do everything we can to maintain lifesaving services for our sickest and most seriously injured patients. We hope negotiations reach a resolution so that this strike does not take place.”
