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“LIFE-and-limb cover” will be provided across the ambulance service in England and Wales today to ensure patients are not put at risk during strikes, a union leader told MPs today.
GMB national secretary Rachel Harrison said that unions had been working “round the clock” to ensure there were enough strike exemptions to keep critical services running.
Tens of thousands of ambulance staff including paramedics and call handlers are expected to walk out tomorrow in a dispute over pay.
Speaking to MPs on the Commons health and social care select committee, Ms Harrison said strike action would go ahead unless Health Secretary Steve Barclay is willing to talk about pay.
The GMB official said that “essential” parts of the service will still be covered today, including responses for the most life-threatening conditions, like cardiac arrest.
“Life-and-limb cover will be provided,” Ms Harrison told MPs. “The last thing that our members want to do is put patients in harm’s way.
“We will do everything within our power to ensure that communities are safe during this action.
“The government has to play their part, they have to come to the table and talk to us.”
She told MPs that ambulance workers have been forced to take strike action after raising concerns for years about ambulance delays and unsafe conditions for patients.
“Our members are tired of going to work every day and in some cases spending the whole of their shift sat in an ambulance outside an A&E department with the same patient,” she said.
“We’ve had examples where members have clocked off at the end of one shift and returned to the ambulance the following day to the same patient, being cared for by the crew that took over the night before.”
NHS leader Matthew Taylor wrote to PM Rishi Sunak, calling on him to avert strike action by ending the deadlock between the government and the unions.
In a letter to the PM, Mr Taylor said: “This is not something NHS leaders would ever say lightly, but many now tell us that they cannot guarantee patient safety tomorrow.
“On health grounds alone, it is clear we have entered dangerous territory.”
The government has indicated it will not budge on the issue of pay.