Shropshire Star

Call to avoid 999 calls during Shropshire health workers' pay row action

[gallery] Ambulances bosses today urged people in Shropshire not to use the service unless in an emergency as healthcare workers continued industrial action.

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NHS staff, including nurses, midwives and ambulance staff, have returned to work following a four-hour strike yesterday as part of a pay dispute.

The walkout is being followed up for the rest of this week with work-to-rule action including an overtime ban and staff taking breaks to which they are entitled.

Paramedics, midwives and radiographers are among those involved in the dispute.

At West Midlands Ambulance Service, more than two-thirds of staff took some form of action and the service will continue to be hit today. People are being asked to call the non-emergency 111 line or use their GP instead of an ambulance.

Workers across Shropshire who joined the walk out aid they feel demoralised, unappreciated and some have even resorted to using foodbanks.

Nurses, midwives and ambulance staff at ambulance stations and the county's two acute hospitals walked out for four hours yesterday and are due to continue work to rule action for the rest of the week.

Outside Princess Royal Hospital, in Telford, where about 40 workers were demonstrating across two entrances, drivers were sounding their horns in support of workers with one resident arriving to hand out bacon sandwiches.

Lorraine Roberts, Unison area organiser, said: "This is affordable but the Government just want to privatise the NHS, they are attacking public services everywhere.

"The action we have taken will have affected the public and disrupted services a little which I understand, but it is a dispute with the Government not the public. Unison negotiated to make sure we got life and limb care.

The picket line at the entrance to the Princess Royal Hospital

"Our message to the Government is the NHS staff are worth at least this one per cent pay rise. They are working really hard and feeling demoralised."

One PRH ward clerk, who did not want to be named, added: "This issue has a real impact on me.

"I have to do extra hours every day to afford the cost of living and I am even working over Christmas because I know I will get a little more now and that will help me."

Anita McNally, work place representative for Unison and PRH midwife, added: "We are not being acknowledged for the professional care we give.

"Scotland and Wales have been given their one per cent why are English being discriminated against by the Government."

At Oswestry Health Centre, all 10 ambulance staff visited the picket line with those who had been on the night shift staying on after they had finished.

Station manager Terry Foster said: "It's four hours to try and highlight the fact that the Government aren't coming up with the goods. We're just asking for a measly one per cent and we think it's not too much to ask.

"We don't like doing it but we're forced into it and backed into a corner."

Paramedic Mick Stokes said: "I've been in for 15 years and never had a pay rise above inflation. My standard of living has dropped. The public values us but the Government doesn't. One per cent won't address the problem."

In Shropshire, Lorraine Morgan, 47, a midwife sonographer at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and representing the Royal College of Midwives union, said: "No-one wants to be on strike but we feel as if we have been left with no other option and that we are really not being listened to."

Theresa Osborne, 32, a midwife at the RSH, said: "We give 100 per cent all of the time and we get nothing back for the Government. They need to recognise what we do."

Elvina Ashton-King, Unison branch secretary, said: "Staff here in Shrewsbury are having to use foodbanks, which are advertised in the hospital for the staff. People are having to use them to support their families, and I think that is appalling."

At West Midlands Ambulance Service, more than two thirds of staff took some form of industrial action. Of the staff on duty, 41 per cent took full strike action while another 26 per cent worked to a number of exemptions meaning they only responded to the most serious calls where life was at risk.

Anthony Marsh, West Midlands Ambulance Service chief executive, said: "Taking strike action is a very difficult decision for our staff, however, through a combination of pre-planning and agreements with union representatives, we have been able to maintain an emergency service for the most seriously ill and injured patients. Although the strike action is over, action short of a strike will continue throughout the week."

He called on patients to call the non emergency 111 line or use their GP, pharmacy or walk-in centre instead of an ambulance.

Officials at Shropshire's two acute hospitals said no operations were cancelled as a result of the strike and said the action had caused "minimal" disruption.

Victoria Maher, workforce director at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We have thoroughly planned for the industrial action which began with a four-hour strike and which will be followed by a work to rule by most unions until Friday, except Unite, who will be carrying out an eight-week work to rule until 19 January 2015.

"The impact on trust services has been minimal with services running as normal for the majority of our patients.

"We rearranged, in advance of today, a small number of scans for pregnant women.

"We had planned today's action with our trade union colleague - picket-lines have been peaceful and throughout our conversations with Trade Union colleagues there has been a joint commitment to minimise any impact for patients."

Responding to the strikes, Labour MP for Telford David Wright said: "I am sympathetic to healthcare workers. "I am sure health workers see strike action as a very last resort."

Wrekin Tory MP Mark Pritchard said: "As the economy strengthens I look forward to an increase in wages for public sector workers at the first money the public finances allow."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "NHS staff are our greatest asset and we want to make the current pay system fairer.

"We have taken tough decisions to increase the NHS budget, but we can't afford a consolidated pay rise in addition to increments without risking 10,000 frontline jobs."

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