Ambulance strikes: Sheffield urged only to call 999 in life-threatening emergencies or serious illness as walkout begins

Today (January 11) marks the first of four wide-reaching walkouts across England this month by healthcare staff, with around 25,000 ambulance workers staging industrial action until midnight. Unison and GMB members from at least three of Sheffield’s ambulance stations – Middlewood, Batemoor, and Longley – will not respond to 999 callouts, with only a skeleton crew on duty to react to life-threatening incidents.

Call handlers, drivers and technicians will also be walking out in a staggered strike, and NHS bosses are urging the public to only call 999 in the most serious circumstances.

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It comes as talks between the Government and union leaders continue to stall. Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay called the strike “unnecessary disruption”, and comes as No 10 has introduced a bill that will open unions to lawsuits if they do not provide “minimum safety levels” of staff during key worker strikes.

In Yorkshire, GMB members will strike for 24 hours, from midnight to midnight. Unison members are walking out between 10am and 10pm. Altogether, it will affect A&E operations from frontline emergency ambulance and 999 call handling, non-emergency patient transport and NHS 111. There are approximately 4,150 members of either GMB or Unison in Yorkshire.

A similar strike was held in December. Nick Smith, executive director of operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “During the strike held just before Christmas, the public responded as we’d asked them to and used our emergency service appropriately for very serious and life-threatening incidents.

“Services will be severely disrupted, with the likelihood of significant delays in emergency responses and telephone calls to 999 and NHS 111 being answered.

“Ambulances will still be able to respond during the strike, but this will only be where there is an immediate risk to life. Less serious calls may not receive a response or a significantly delayed response for the duration of the strike action and some patients might be asked to make their own way to hospital, where it is safe for them to so.”