Seriously ill patients are waiting 'hours' for ambulances as emergency 999 calls stack up, meanwhile staff wait entire shifts stuck outside hospitals as there are no beds available inside for people needing to be dropped off. The disruption will likely be made worse by impending industrial action as paramedics, call handlers, emergency care assistants and other ambulance workers have voted in their masses to strikes.
But paramedics, speaking on condition of anonymity, tell the Manchester Evening News that patients are already unsafe after 'years' of ambulance services being underfunded and understaffed. Strikes, they claim, could change that and finally ensure that ambulance services up and down the country are fit for purpose.
Votes to strike from several unions representing paramedics from different regions come as ambulance services across the country are haemorrhaging their ability to get to patients within the NHS' own target response times. Not only are certain parts of the country worse affected, but the difference between response times within cities - including Greater Manchester - has proven to be staggering.
