Unions and ambulance trusts in most parts of England and Wales have struck deals to ensure “life and limb cover” during a strike on Wednesday, MPs have been told.
Hopes of the strike by about 10,000 staff being called off have faded, with one union leader saying she did not expect the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to make a revised pay offer at a short meeting on Tuesday.
While some “essential” services will still be provided, MPs heard that plans to tell people to take taxis to hospital instead of waiting for an ambulance would be “far less safe”.
Fresh polling shows sizeable public support for striking ambulance workers and nurses, with most people blaming the government for the standoff.
Rachel Harrison, the national secretary of the GMB, which is one of three unions representing ambulance workers due to strike on Wednesday, said unions had been working “round the clock” to ensure there were enough strike exemptions to keep critical services running.
She told parliament’s health and social care select committee: “Life and limb cover will be provided. The last thing that our members want to do is put patients in harm’s way.”
Harrison said it was already the case that people were having to take taxis to hospital because ambulance wait times were too high, while others were dying in an ambulance waiting to be transferred into A&E.
“We will do everything within our power to ensure that communities are safe during this action,” she said. “The government has to play their part, they have to come to the table and talk to us. Our members want a resolution to this.”
While unions have been invited to a meeting with Barclay on Tuesday, Harrison said she thought it was “a bit late in the day” to be discussing emergency cover during the strike. She said most agreements had already been signed off with local trusts and they would vary depending on differing areas’ needs.
“We don’t expect an offer to be made on pay today,” Harrison said. She said the quickest way to resolve the dispute would be for the government to make a revised offer, adding: “We’re not making a demand. We’re saying make us an offer.”
Harrison said ambulance workers had asked for an above-inflation pay rise, but one that was lower than the 19% request by the Royal College of Nursing. She pointed out that the government overruled the independent pay review body that recommended previous rises in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
She warned ministers about the prospect of future strikes. “If no payoff is forthcoming, we will continue to have that conversation next year as we head towards the next round of pay discussions,” Harrison said.
John Martin, the president of the College of Paramedics, said there were already long delays in ambulance response times, and these were “likely to be worse” despite the emergency cover in place on Wednesday.
“With this life and limb cover, paramedics up and down the country will absolutely want to keep patients safe,” he said.
Daren Mochrie, the chair of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, said that in his 31 years working in the ambulance sector “this is the most difficult time I’ve experienced”. He said Covid had exacerbated the problems because there had been “no respite whatsoever” for staff between busy peaks in winter and summer.
Julian Redhead, the national clinical director for urgent and emergency care at NHS England, acknowledged the phenomenal demands on the emergency services.
The Conservative MP Lucy Allan told Redhead that 44,000 hours had been lost in a single month at West Midlands ambulance service while ambulances waited outside hospitals.
Redhead said action had been taken to increase the number of call handlers and there was work ongoing to solve the issue of handover delays.
Asked by MPs if public safety would be affected by the strike, Redhead said: “I think that we’re doing everything we can to maintain patient safety. And none of us, I don’t think any member of staff, I know a lot of paramedics would also say this, nobody wants to see public safety be harmed by this.”
The government has refused to negotiate on requests for a pay rise, and a one-off payment to staff had been put forward but was rejected by Downing Street.
Rishi Sunak has defended the decision, saying the government was acting fairly and reasonably and in the long-term interests of the country by combating inflation He said: “The government is doing everything it can to be responsible and put in place contingency measures to support people, but ultimately I will continue to urge the unions to call off the strike because that’s what is causing disruption to people’s lives, that is what is having an impact on their health.”
A YouGov poll released on Tuesday shows 66% of the public support the decision of nurses to strike, while 63% back industrial action by ambulance workers.
When asked whom they blame, 56% blamed the government for the nurses’ strike and 54% for the ambulance workers’ strike, while 19% and 18% blamed the respective unions.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said ministers in Cardiff had decided against offering nurses more than the 4% and 5.5% they had already been offered.
Ambulance service staff in Scotland called off a planned strike after Unite and Unison members agreed to a new offer, with a new minimum hourly rate.
