Day of action: Ambulances responding only to life-threatening emergencies

The Trust’s says its ability to respond to patients has been significantly hampered as a result of staff taking part in the action today.

As a result the Trust is calling on the public to only call 999 for an ambulance if it is absolutely necessary and where possible to seek alternative advice or assistance from other healthcare providers such as NHS Direct on 01845 4647 or visiting www.nhs.uk.

The Trust is committed to ensuring the safety of its patients during this period and has put in place a number of measures to ensure that disruption to services is kept to minimum.

These include ensuring all operational managers are available to respond to emergencies, using voluntary sector organisations as well as private providers as necessary.

However, to ensure that potentially life-threatening emergencies get the response they need, some patients may have to wait longer for an ambulance response.

SECAmb’s Director of Clinical Operations, Andy Newton said: “Clearly our main priority now is to get to those patients who need us most and therefore have taken the decision to focus our efforts on the patients with life-threatening conditions.

“Therefore, we would ask people to bear with us and where possible avoid calling us during this period of industrial action.”

While some staff have chosen to take action, we are unable say how many staff have decided to strike at this time.

Click on our Live Events section for the latest details on the day of action.