Yorkshire ambulance workers to vote on strike action

An ambulance worker says he does not earn enough "to put food on the table" ahead of a strike ballot.

Emergency care worker Lee Edgerton said colleagues at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) did not want to strike.

GMB union members will begin voting on industrial action from Monday after being offered a 4% rise by government.

Nick Smith, from Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) NHS Trust, said: "We recognise that staff have the right to voice their concerns in this way."

Mr Edgerton said that patients' experiences of the NHS had "changed dramatically" over the past few years with some waiting "six to seven hours to get us there in the first place".

"Then we arrive at A&E and in some circumstances we are waiting eight to nine hours to get them a bed, to get them into A&E. They're just sat in the back of an ambulance waiting and waiting," he said.

Union organiser Deanne Ferguson said "GMB members have had enough, they are angry".

"For me £1,300 a month just isn't enough money. Staff in the NHS don't want to strike, they don't want to do stuff like that, but there's no other option - we've waited for things to get better and they are getting worse," Mr Edgerton said.

"Ultimately we want to be able to have enough money to enjoy life a little bit at the moment it's not enough to put food on the table."

Mr Edgerton had his own experience of ambulance delays four months ago when he displayed the symptoms of a stroke. He dialled 999 to be told there were no ambulances available and decided to drive himself to hospital.

He said it was a mini-stroke and he had now recovered.

Figures from YAS for September show ambulance response times for 90% of Category One calls, where there was an immediate threat to life, was 17.30 minutes. The target time is 15 minutes.

For Category Two calls, serious conditions that may require urgent treatment, 90% were responded to in an hour and 33 minutes, the target time is 40 minutes.

Ms Ferguson said: "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 across 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."

Mr Smith said delays in ambulance times were "exacerbated by handover delays at busy hospitals".

"This protracted period of operational pressures is being managed in line with the plans that we have in place to protect our core services," he said.

"Unfortunately, there are patients who are facing delays and we are very sorry that we are unable to respond to them as quickly as we would like."

Regarding the strike ballot, he said YAS was "working closely with our trade unions to monitor the situation closely to ensure we continue to provide safe and responsive care for our patients".

See more on this story on Politics North (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire) on BBC One on Sunday 23 October at 10:00 BST or watch via BBC iPlayer here afterwards.

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