Ambulance strikes: Blackpool paramedics for North West Ambulance Service strike as 'last resort', saying: NHS cuts mean 'we’re not able to do our job'

Bob Amos-Jones, paramedic with North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and convener for Unison Lancashire said: “For the last ten years we’ve had a below-inflation pay rise and we’ve had enough. We have to fuel our cars to get to work, we have to heat our homes and feed our families. We have food banks set up at NWAS because some of our lower paid staff members can’t make ends meet.”

Often stuck for up to six hours

He points to a plot of land that used to be Devonshire Road Hospital, a five-ward community hospital that offered both inpatient and outpatient facilities

It had housed a rehabilitation unit, where patients could be discharged to free-up beds at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. This closed down in 2008.

Mr Amos-Jones said: “As a result, our ambulance crews end up stuck outside hospital waiting with patients in the back of their ambulance for up to six hours. We’re not able to do our job, and this has been building up for the last two or three years. That’s down to this government’s lack of investment in the NHS.”

Stressful working conditions

He added that better wages are needed to stop paramedics leaving to work in GP surgeries and walk-in centres, where they get better rates of pay and less stressful working conditions.

Chris Webb, chair of trustees for Blackpool mental health charity, Counselling In The Community, joined the Blackpool ambulance workers to show his ‘support and solidarity’ as they stood at their site on Devonshire Road at around 8:30am.

Public support

Chris said, “Whilst I was there, they received an unprecedented show from the passing public support. They are only on strike today as a last resort and with a heavy heart to try and save the service. We clapped them from our doorsteps. Now it's time for the Government to do its job and get round the table with unions.”

The strike comes a day after members of the Royal College of Nursing staged their second walkout, also over pay.

The GMB said more than 10,000 ambulance workers across nine trusts in England and Wales were planning to strike.

The health secretary has said his door is open

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “On average every health worker’s real pay is worth some 20% less than it was in 2010. It seems the NHS staff are too important to strike but not important enough to get a decent wage. The health secretary has said his door is open but unless he is going to address pay increases the NHS will continue to collapse.”

What the Prime Minister said

Rishi Sunak has insisted he cannot budge on NHS pay because he does not want to exacerbate soaring inflation.

Mr Sunak said: “It’s difficult for everybody, because inflation is where it is. And the best way to help them and help everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible.

“If we get it wrong and we’re still dealing with high inflation in a year’s time, that’s not going to help anybody.”