30th March 2023
On Friday 31 March 2023, ambulance trade unions in NI will strike for up to 24 hours, with further similar action planned for Monday 3 April.
The Trade Unions involved are UNISON and NIPSA. The times of the strike action will vary, dependent upon the Trade Union involved.
NIAS and Trade Union representatives have engaged to identify services and roles that will be exempt from strike action, to ensure that a response continues to the most clinically urgent patients, thereby balancing the right to strike with patient safety.
NIAS anticipates that there will be challenges throughout the day and have planned to maintain the safety of those patients whose need is greatest. The impact of the action will be felt most on those patients calling NIAS whose need is less clinically urgent. We anticipate that there will be lengthy delays in responding to these categories of calls.
To ensure that we maintain the levels of cover required to respond to the most urgent calls, we would ask the public to call us only in life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness, breathing difficulties, severe bleeding and others. We would also ask that, having placed a 999 call, the public should resist calling back to check on the arrival time of the ambulance. The ambulance will arrive at the earliest opportunity and calling back repeatedly can block lines into the Control centre for other emergencies.
We stress that ambulances will still be available. However, they will be limited and we will prioritise patients with life-threatening injuries or illnesses.
Callers should not hesitate to call 999 in the case of serious illness or injury, but other callers should consider other options including self-care, seeking GP or Pharmacy advice or presenting themselves to Emergency Departments.
This day of industrial action will impact all services provided by NIAS including Non-Emergency Transport, Emergency and non-Emergency Control Centres as well as Administration and Support Services.
NIAS respects the right of our staff who are union members to participate in industrial action. This action is being taken in relation to the national issues of pay and conditions and is a matter for the Government and Trade Unions.
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For further details contact:
John McPoland
Media and Communications Manager
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service
Tel: 028 9040 0719