6th December 2022
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) has received notification from Unison, NIPSA and GMB trade unions of their intention to take industrial action short of strike in the week commencing 5 December in the first instance. We also understand there will be further action short of strike action week commencing 12 December and strike action on 12 December.
The Trust recognises and respects the right of our staff to take industrial action. We are grateful to trade union colleagues who are working with us to implement derogations to mitigate any potential impact on the most urgent ambulance calls. However, there is a potential for some degree of service disruption and/or delayed ambulance response during the week ahead initially.
NIAS also recognises that current pressures on the Health and Social Care System, are still the main reason for ambulance delays and during this period of Industrial Action, we will continue to work with HSC colleagues to manage this ongoing situation.
As always, the public has a role to play in helping us to manage the demand on our services. We would ask that the public only call 999 for life-threatening emergencies and to not delay in doing so.
NIAS will prioritise those calls which are most clinically urgent to ensure that we get to the sickest quickest. Other callers with less serious conditions will have to wait longer and, for that, we apologise.