Patients are dying "day in, day out" due to staff shortages, a lack of hospital beds, and hours-long queues of ambulances outside hospitals, health workers have warned.
Roughly 25,000 paramedics and ambulance workers who are members of the GMB, Unison and Unite went on strike on Wednesday, December 21. Nurses also walked out this week and last in a dispute over an offered pay rise of less than 5% on average, which both groups have rejected.
Dave Harris, convenor of the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) branch of the GMB, was on the picket line at Old Swan ambulance station on Thursday. The paramedic told the ECHO: "We've had a fantastic turnout by our members. I'm overwhelmed at the public support, everyone's going past beeping, waving, shouting absolute full support for the NHS and of the ambulance workers who have gone on strike."
