Striking ambulance workers in Yorkshire say they are prepared to continue taking industrial action into the New Year

On a picket line outside Sutton Fields station in Hull emergency care assistant Wendy Smith said crews’ physical and mental health was suffering because of long shifts without meal breaks and hours queuing at hospitals.

Ms Smith, a Unison steward, said they would go on taking industrial action “for as long as it takes”, adding: “Most of all it’s patient care – poor patients having to wait in the back of an ambulance for hours or in a corridor. It is not fair on them when they are very poorly.”

Paramedic Steve Hendy, who has worked for Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) for 14 years, said in recent times 10-hour shifts had become quite normal, and staff were leaving to work in other parts of the NHS where they could break for meals and get home on time.

He said he’d continue to support the strike, even if it went into February.

The strikes came after YAS declared a critical incident on Tuesday as a result of “significant demand pressures impacting on its ability to respond safely to patients”.

Of its workforce of over 7,000, around 4,000 are members of Unison and the GMB. The latter is planning to walk out next Wednesday for another 24 hours.

YAS said they had been less busy than expected. Some patients had to wait longer for an ambulance and others had been advised to use alternative means to get to hospital.

A statement added: “It has been a relatively busy day so far, but less than forecast for a Wednesday in late December. We appreciate members of the public taking heed of our messages to use our services wisely.”

A chief executive of a large northern teaching trust told the Health Service Journal it had “so far not (been) as bad as I’d feared in terms of hospital pressures – in fact, (emergency departments) are less pressured than usual.

"We haven’t seen cars/taxis with patients arriving in large numbers but the problem is that much of the risk is not currently visible to us given people will be at home …

“We therefore expect very busy days on Thursday and Friday.”

Earlier there was a bitter war of words between unions and Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who has said he will not back down on pay.

Mr Barclay insists paying ambulance staff more will take money away from frontline services at a time when they are facing record waiting lists as a result of the pandemic.

He said they’d accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body, meaning most ambulance staff had received a rise of at least four per cent.

With extra pay from covering unsocial hours, geographical supplements and overtime, the average total earnings was around £47,000 per person.

East Midlands Unison regional secretary Chris Jenkinson said the union had been “more than prepared” to stand down the strike to facilitate talks. “He (the Health Secretary) flatly refused to enter any negotiations. For reasons best known to themselves they want to pick a fight.”

Meanwhile a West Yorkshire GP, who didn't want to be named, laid into the "total failure of planning” by both Government and NHS England to prepare the public for the impact of the strikes.

He said: "There has been no advance communication to the public and no rallying of communities ahead of industrial action that was announced weeks ago.

"There is an army of people who would have been willing to get stuck in to support vulnerable folk and help transport the sick and injured, as we found during the Covid pandemic. Every GP I have spoken to supports ambulance service colleagues who are standing up against the wrecking of the entire NHS and care system by this government.”