Ambulance crews in Northamptonshire vote to join strike over NHS pay and staffing levels

Ambulance crews in Northamptonshire are set to strike before Christmas after union members voted to walk out in a long-running dispute over pay and staffing levels.

GMB leaders said 10,000 of its members backed action across nine trusts in England and Wales — including East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS), which covers the county. But another of another of the major health service unions, Unison, said ballots at EMAS among 999 call handlers, ambulance technicians, paramedics and their colleagues failed to reach the threshold of a 50 percent turnout among its members required by law.

Leaders of the Unite union said its members had also backed strike action by up to 92 percent but did not specify which areas had secured big enough turnouts, adding that more details will be announced in the coming days.

GMB’s vote among EMAS staff saw a 59.58 percent turnout with 85 percent in favour of strike action and 94 per cent supporting action short of striking.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing are staging two strikes later in December at Kettering General Hospital and Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, which provides mental health, community nursing, sexual health, physiotherapy and a range of others including specialty services in the county — although the ballot among nurses at Northampton General Hospital failed to get the required turnout.

Other NHS workers in Northamptonshire including midwives and physiotherapists are also voting on industrial action with results due in December.

One worker who voted for strike action told nationalworld.com he did so because the current situation was “carnage” and the “worst I’ve ever seen it” and that delays meant they were not getting to cardiac arrests quick enough.

Unions say NHS workers are angry over the four per cent NHS Agenda for Change pay award, which was imposed in October and falls well short of the real cost of living with inflation running at over 12 percent.

Rachel Harrison, GMB general secretary, said: “Ambulance workers, like other NHS workers, are on their knees.

“Demoralised and downtrodden, they’ve faced 12 years of Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the frontline of a global pandemic and now face the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

“No one in the NHS takes strike action lightly, today shows just how desperate they are. This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay. A third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient.

“Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse. GMB calls on the government to avoid a winter of NHS strikes by negotiating a pay award that these workers deserve.”

December is traditionally one of the busiest months for the NHS. The union will meet with reps in the coming days to discuss potential strike dates before Christmas, although rules requiring emergency care to be maintained will probably limit any impact.