GMS ambulance strikers outside Worcestershire Ambulance hub

Workers from General Medical Services (GMS) joined thousands of NHS staff across the country in order to take part in a nationwide strike. 

A picket line was formed outside Bromsgrove Ambulance Hub in Lickey End after a dispute over pay.

Cars, lorries, and vans honked their horns to show solidarity with the strikers.

Despite the strike, West Midlands Ambulance Service said the most life-threatening calls, including those for cardiac arrest, will not be affected. 

Declan Downes,44 and Richard Malin, 55 were taking part in the strike (Image: NQ)

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Paramedics, Emergency Care Assistants, call handlers, and other staff at West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) are all among those on strike today.

Workers are asking for their pay to be in line with inflation amid the cost of living crisis.

Declan Downes, aged 44, works as a regional organiser for GMS and said: "We started the strike at 6am and we're taking it in turns.

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"Although we are striking, workers are still going to category one calls. So the government can't say we are putting lives at risk.

"The NHS and ambulance workers are being decimated or set up to fail.

"Most of the ambulance workers spend most of their shift in the A&E department waiting to offload a patient and spending a lot of their time waiting around rather than spending time helping people. 

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"Over the years, how many A&E departments have closed?

GMS workers are striking today (Image: NQ)

"We want the government to talk about pay, and we are not asking for a substantial pay rise, but we are asking that we are taken seriously. 

"With the cost of living crisis at the moment and all we want is for our members to have a wage increase that is reflective of that. 

"All we are asking is for ambulance workers to be able to go home and support their families, which is not unreasonable. 

Despite the strikes, ambulance services said they would still be available for category one incidents.

A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulances Services said: "Patients should only call 999 if there is risk to life or a patient is critically unwell.

"Ambulances will be dispatched where clinically appropriate to the most serious cases only.

"For other health needs, use NHS111 online or contact your local pharmacy or local GP."

Asked why he refuses to talk to unions about pay, health secretary Steve Barclay said he does not want to “divert money” from services for patients.

Pressed about repeated pleas from union leaders for a conversation to try and resolve the dispute, he told Sky News: “We have a process in terms of pay, an independent process, and we’ve accepted the recommendations of that in full.”

He added: “We’re investing in the NHS, we’re investing in social care, and I don’t want to divert money from those essential services focused on patients to overturn what has been an independent process which has looked at what is affordable to the economy, what is affordable to your viewers at a time of cost-of-living pressure, but also recognising the system is under very severe pressure and we need to get that extra investment into the NHS and into social care.”