The NHS and ambulance services are the next to strike, with these taking place across te month of January.
The first of the ambulance strikes begun today, with the next being on the 23rd of January.
Today several ambulance workers joined a picket line at Portchester Road, Bournemouth, in hopes of raising awareness to the strikes with signs advertising the union.
Listen to what one of the ambulance workers had to say.
The picketers are striking from 10am until 10pm, among those is Andy Lofthouse, the National Officer at Unison.
Of the strikes, he said: “It’s time that this government takes notice of these workers and start to sit down and talk to us, about all we’re asking for and pay.”
“Unison represents the NHS staff across the board, and every one of them is saying that they’ve never seen it as bad as it is, you’ve got queues outside of A&E which is the visible stuff you’ll see. So the government needs to do something about it.”
“So, the government needs to do something about it.”
As well, they were holding sign that said ‘honk 4 support!’ which was met by numerous honks, demonstrating the public support in the local area.
It is being asked that people only call 999 for life-threatening issues, for example cardiac arrest, and going down in order of necessity from urgent, to non-urgent issues, such as diarrhoea.
If you have a non-urgent issue, please call 111.
It is also advised that due to the strikes, fewer ambulances will be running and therefore it will be best to call a taxi service or contact a friend for a lift.
The strikes are being held as a demand for better pay and also better patient safety.
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