An ambulance worker who drives patients to hospital in emergencies and helps paramedics with treatment has told how he takes home just £1,300 a month.
Emergency Care Assistant Lee Edgerton, one of 15,000 ambulance staff in a strike ballot yesterday, said he had no choice after receiving a 4% pay offer.
The 29-year-old said: “For me, £1,300 a month just isn’t enough money. It’s not enough to put food on the table.
“Staff in the NHS don’t want to strike, but there’s no other option. We’ve waited for things to get better and they are getting worse.”
Nick Smith, of Lee’s employers, Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said staff had a “right to voice their concerns in this way”.
Deanne Ferguson, of the GMB which organised the ballot, said: “GMB members have had enough, they are angry.
“Ambulance staff should not be worrying about how they’ll heat their homes this winter or feed their families, whilst carrying out a crucial service in our communities.
“The service is crumbling, and it is having an impact on everyone. It is only surviving because of the amazing workers holding it together through goodwill.”
Lee told of his despair at the delays patients have to endure, some waiting seven hours for an ambulance to arrive.
He said: “Then we arrive at A&E and in some circumstances we are waiting eight to nine hours to get them a bed.
“They’re in the back of an ambulance, waiting and waiting.”
Lee has worked for YAS for six years, and earns £23,000 a year, taking home £1,300 a month after tax and NI.
He struggles to pay bills and save for a mortgage and worked throughout lockdown, catching Covid himself.
He said: “The Tories have had 12 years to sort the crisis in our NHS.
“Now this action is necessary, it is the last resort. It is not just about pay, it is about conditions, hospital waiting times, bed blocking, under-resourced care in the community.
“Retention of staff, low pay and poor conditions is putting pressure on remaining staff.”
