Patients face a postcode lottery on whether ambulances will be available for emergency care - with North East and North West of England likely to be the worst hit
Heart attack and stroke patients in England face a postcode lottery on Wednesday over whether ambulances will be able to take them to hospital.in a dispute over pay on Wednesday, but 999 ambulance responses will depend on where patients live.
In contrast, just 200 members of South Central Ambulance Service, whose 4,500 staff provide emergency and urgent care to more than four million people across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire, could refuse to work. The strike will happen a day after Royal College of Nursing members stage their second walkout, also over pay. The exact numbers of emergency staff who will take part in the industrial action will be published nationally on Thursday, the day after the strike as was done with the RCN.
Stephen Segasby, chief operating officer at North East Ambulance Service, said: “Our priority is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our patients and staff. We have planned with great care for this strike, but“We also anticipate that the days after the strike will be busy and as we head into an extended bank holiday over Christmas, we want to encourage people to use services wisely and prepare where possible.
“However, we anticipate that on days where there is industrial action that there will still be fewer ambulances available and therefore our responses to our patients will, inevitably, be much slower on the day. Therefore our 999 control rooms, where possible, will carefully assess and prioritise an ambulance response for those who need it most, and this may only be where there is a threat to life.
“The Government, for its part, is being responsible in putting in place contingency measures to make sure we are well-prepared to handle the disruption that is coming.”
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