Ambulance crews in England are due to walk out for two days on December 21 and 28 (Belinda Jiao/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Fears over 999 ambulance responses in London were growing on Monday with unions and health services in the capital yet to strike a deal on serious conditions like heart attacks and strokes.
Ambulance workers are due to walk out on Wednesday in a dispute over pay, a day after health services across the country are set to be disrupted by a second one-day strike by nurses.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay is pressing ambulance unions to clarify what emergency conditions they will cover during Wednesday’s walk out.
While crews are expected to cover emergency Category One incidents, which include life-threatening injuries, illnesses and cardiac arrests where the patient has stopped breathing and does not have a pulse, it is not clear whether they will cover all emergency Category Two conditions, which can include heart attacks, strokes, epilepsy and burns.
The London Ambulance Service Unison (LAS), one of three unions representing ambulance workers and 999 call handlers who have voted to strike across England and Wales, both said no plan had yet been agreed for coverage in London.
A spokesperson for LAS said it would give a statement on coverage once negotiations with the unions had concluded.
The Government’s emergency COBRA committee was due to meet today to discuss contingency plans for the ambulance and nursing strikes as well as other industrial action by workers across other sectors including the railways.
But Government sources said that while the door was open, there were no scheduled talks between the Health Secretary and health unions.
Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, which is demanding a pay rise for ambulance workers of around 10 per cent, said: “Seriously, there’s no trust left between us and the government... they have consistently refused to talk to us about pay.”
Stepping up the pressure on unions to agree a coverage plan for emergency calls, Mr Barclay said: “It’s important that the trade unions honour the commitment they’ve given to safeguard both life-threatening responses and emergency responses.”
