NHS bosses are braced for the biggest day of strike action in history next month after the Unite union announced fresh ambulance walkouts.
Unite on Friday announced workers from five ambulance trusts in England and Wales would strike on February 6 - the same day that nurses will stage industrial action. Paramedics from the GMB union will strike on the same day.
Ambulance workers will also walk out on Monday as part of a bitter pay dispute with the Government. Further strikes are scheduled for February 17, 20 and 22.Unite's strike on February 6 will affect ambulance trusts in the North West, North East, West Midlands, East Midlands and Wales.
The London Ambulance Service (LAS) will not be impacted. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said of the new announcement: “Rather than act to protect the NHS and negotiate an end to the dispute, the Government has disgracefully chosen to demonise ambulance workers.
“Ministers are deliberately misleading the public about the life and limb cover and who is to blame for excessive deaths."
Unite said that as with previous strikes, its representatives will be working at regional level to agree derogations to ensure that emergency life and limb cover will be in place during the action.
Ambulance handover delays in London dropped to their lowest figure this winter on the day of the ambulance strike on January 11, suggesting that Londoners heeded the NHS's call to only contact 999 in a "life or limb" emergency.
Only a fifth (20 per cent) of ambulances arriving at London hospitals faced a delay of over 30 minutes on January 11, a drop of 15 per cent on the figure a week prior.
The number of 999 calls made to the LAS also dropped by a third. It comes after thousands of nurses at 55 trusts in England went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday after pay negotiations with ministers broke down last week.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) insisted it was "continuing to have constructive discussions" with unions.Speaking to broadcasters earlier this week, Health Secretary Steve Barclay appeared to rule out a 10 per cent rise for striking NHS staff to end the dispute, dismissing it as "not affordable".
"It would be an extra £3.6 billion a year and obviously that would take money away from patient services, essential services that we need to invest in given the backlogs from the pandemic,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said last night that it had made a “best and final offer” to the RMT in a bid to end the strikes on Britain's railways.
The RDG said the offer included a minimum pay rise of 9 per cent over two years and guaranteed no compulsory redundancies until at least the end of December 2024.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the union’s executive will consider the offer and decide its next steps “in due course”.
Education unions were meeting again with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan on Friday for talks in a bid to avert teacher strikes scheduled for February 1, March 15 and 16.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), told Sky News that issues in education must be addressed during the negotiations “rather than skirting around them".
