North West Ambulance Service Officials Pleased With Scale Down of Planned Strike Action

On Friday evening, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) learnt of the scale down of industrial action by both the GMB and Unison trade unions for the planned action on Monday 6 and Wednesday 8 March.

Currently, the Unite union is planning to go ahead with strike action 00.01 hours until 23.59 hours on Monday.

Director of Operations Ged Blezard explains, “Two of the unions involved have confirmed they are standing down the planned action for Monday and Wednesday while they continue talks with the government which is welcome news.

“Despite the arrangements we had put in place, there was no doubt that we had some concerns about the number of patients we would have been unable to reach and so we are pleased that progress is being made.

“We still will be operating at some reduced capacity on Monday as Unite continues with its action. However, we are confident that our existing plans will enable us to continue to effectively respond to patients. We can only do this with the continued assistance of the public who should still only call 999 in life-threatening or serious emergencies.

“The trust is grateful to colleagues both on and off the picket lines, and in the trade unions, as well as all its system partners, for their professionalism and collaboration throughout industrial action, to ensure we could continue to respond to patients in need of an emergency response.

“We will continue to work with trade union colleagues closely to keep patients safe in any future periods of industrial action and continue to fully respect the right of NHS staff to take lawful and peaceful action.”