East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) staff will be on strike from today, Wednesday 21 December 2022.

At EMAS, industrial action is planned to take place on Wednesday 21 December 2022, Thursday 22 December 2022 6am to 6am, and Wednesday 28 December 2022 and Thursday 29 December 2022 6am to 6am.

EMAS have a workforce of over 4,000 which includes colleagues across all areas of the organisation, for example A&E frontline ambulance crews, 999 control rooms, Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services and Enabling Services. 

GMB trade union members taking this action may affect up to 50% of staff.

During this time of strike action, the neighbouring United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust has declared a critical incident due to significant pressure on its services.

It comes as NHS staff across the nation are set to strike from today, Wednesday 9 December. 

Ben Holdaway, Director of Operations at EMAS, said: "During the period of the dispute, we will do all we can to minimise the impact on patient safety and will continue to work very closely with trade union colleagues, regional service providers and NHS Employers.

He said contingency plans were in place to maximise the number of vehicles and staff available.

"However, we anticipate that on days where there is industrial action that there will still be fewer ambulances available and therefore our responses to our patients will, inevitably, be much slower on the day," he said.

"Therefore our 999 control rooms, where possible, will carefully assess and prioritise an ambulance response for those who need it most, and this may only be where there is a threat to life.

"Patients should continue to call for an ambulance as normal if they experience a life-threatening emergency and should continue to access other more appropriate services for any other illnesses or injuries such as NHS111 on-line or contacting their local Urgent Treatment Centre.

"We fully respect the right of NHS staff to take lawful and peaceful industrial action, however we do urge national employer representatives and trade union colleagues to pro-actively engage and reach a negotiated settlement to the dispute as quickly as possible."