NHS pledges to maintain 999 cover while nurses and paramedics strike

HEALTH SERVICE IN CRISIS

- Jonathan Williamson Walker, David and Jon Coates

THE NHS will still provide emergency care for patients who need it, despite walkouts by ambulance staff and nurses, Health Secretary Stephen Barclay has vowed.

He insisted the Government is keeping the public "as safe as possible" and has set out plans for 1,200 armed forces personnel to drive ambulances and provide cover for striking Border Force staff.

But there were warnings that ambulances might only arrive if there is "an immediate risk to life".

Other patients are urged to seek advice over the phone or use "alternative transport" to get to hospital.

Mr Barclay insisted that giving in to pay demands would damage the NHS by "taking money away from frontline services at a time when we are tackling record waiting lists".

Rejecting union claims that the Government is refusing to negotiate, Mr Barclay said: "I have done my utmost to listen to the concerns raised by unions and hold a dialogue throughout this dispute."

He told a newspaper: "Despite their claims, some union leaders would rather grandstand on picket lines and in television studios than sit down and have a constructive conversation. Strikes are in no one's interests, least of all patients. I am concerned some unions representing ambulance crews are being less than co-operative in negotiations about staff cover on strike days."

Ambulance workers in England will strike on Wednesday and again on December 28. It comes after nurses last week held their first ever strike over pay, with another walk-out planned for Tuesday.