Ambulance strikes ‘will see severely ill patients arriving at wrong hospitals’

Ambulance workers going on strike will lead to severely ill patients turning up at A&E or the wrong hospitals in their own transport, Britain’s top accident and emergency doctor has warned.

Thousands of ambulance workers and 999 call handlers have voted for strike action across the country. Talks at some unions about the dates on which workers will walk out over pay are expected to conclude on Tuesday.

Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the already “fragile” emergency system would be significantly impacted if strikes went ahead.

“We would expect to see an increase in the severity of patients turning up in their own transport,” he said, adding that this had already been happening in some cases.

Earlier this year Deborah Lee, the chief executive of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust revealed that she was taken to A&E by her husband after suffering a stroke rather than calling for an ambulance because of concerns over long waits.

“We suspect there will be more serious cases coming towards the walk-in ends of our departments,” said Dr Boyle.

Asked what the impact on patient care could be if more patients made their own way to hospital, he said it would increase the risk of severely ill people arriving at the wrong places, which could delay critical care.

For example, if a patient suffers a stroke, ambulance workers may know to take them to a hospital slightly further away if it has a dedicated stroke unit, rather than the nearest one.

Dr Boyle stressed the importance of seeking emergency care if patients are severely unwell amid concerns that some are staying away from health services because of reports of pressures on the NHS.

“I regularly see people who say ‘I just didn’t want to come because I knew I’d wait for hours and I was too scared’,” he said.

On possible strike action across the NHS, Dr Boyle said: “We want people to feel valued, we know that the strikes are going to be disruptive and we have a retention crisis.”

The GMB, Unison and Unite unions have all announced that ambulance workers have voted in favour of industrial action, but are yet to release the dates of possible strikes.

The Royal College of Nursing has announced that nurses will strike on Dec 15 and 20.

Unions must give employers two weeks notice of any strike action, meaning Tuesday is the last day on which they can notify trusts if they also wish to stage a walk on Dec 20.

Anna Parry, the deputy managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, said: “Committed ambulance staff are the backbone of local ambulance services, but we know that the intense pressure the ambulance sector is under – especially with regard to hospital handover delays at emergency departments – is having a significant impact on their health and well-being.

“While AACE respects the rights of ambulance workers to take strike action, we know that this will result in additional pressures on an already-challenged system. This is why we hope that a resolution will be found quickly between the Government and trade union representatives.”