Ambulance workers vote to strike in Milton Keynes - but our hospital nurses will stay working

Ambulance workers in Milton Keynes have voted yes to launch strike action, it has been announced today (Wednesday).

The strike will include 999 call handlers, paramedics, ambulance technicians, and their colleagues working for the South Central Ambulance Service.

The action, which will leave hundreds of local patients struggling to get to hospital, will take place before Christmas – unless the government negotiates a hasty pay award.

But the good news is that, if people manage to get to MK hospital, there will be nurses there to treat them. For Milton Keynes University Hospital is not on the list of those set to be affected by nursing strikes next month.

Elsewhere, 100,000 nursing staff have voted in favour of walkouts, the Royal College of Nursing has confirmed. This will impact 44 out of the 219 NHS trusts in England.

Meanwhile, South Central Ambulance Service is one of three south coast trusts where a total of almost 3,500 workers voted to strike.

Rachel Harrison, the national secretary of GMB union, said: “Ambulance workers – like other NHS workers – are on their knees. Demoralised and downtrodden, they’ve faced twelve years Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the frontline of a global pandemic and now face the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

“No one in the NHS takes strike action lightly – today shows just how desperate they are.”

Workers say the government’s four per cent pay award represents another massive real terms pay cut.

But they also say the strike is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay.

Shockingly, one- third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient.

“Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse,” said Rachel.

She said the union would be meeting with local reps over the coming days to discuss potential strike dates before Christmas.

“GMB calls on the Government to avoid a Winter of NHS strikes by negotiating a pay award that these workers deserve.”