Ambulance workers will stage two further strikes in January amid a dispute over pay and staffing.
The Unison union says the industrial action will take place on 11 and 23 January.
The strike action will involve ambulance staff employed by services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West.
It comes after 25,000 ambulance workers from Unison, Unite and the GMB unions walked out in coordinated strike action on 21 December – their biggest strike in 30 years.
Members of the GMB union at nine ambulance trusts are also preparing to strike on 28 December, while 1,000 union members in the Welsh Ambulance Service are set to announce strike dates in the new year.
Wednesday’s strikes took place after last-ditch crisis talks between Health Secretary Steve Barclay and unions failed to address the issue of pay.
The majority of ambulance trusts in England declared critical incidents this week – meaning they were on their highest level of alert where they feared they could not provide usual critical services.
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0:38
Paramedic Paul Turner explains why he and others are taking industrial action and says that the government is ‘not listening’.
Ahead of Wednesday’s industrial action, the unions had called on the government to make an offer on pay and suggested an agreement could be reached.
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Unions warn strikes will ‘escalate’
Unite’s Onay Kasab, who attended the Tuesday meeting, warned afterwards that ambulance strikes would “escalate” unless the government agreed to negotiations.
“Our members are absolutely determined to win not just the pay battle but to win the battle to save the NHS,” he said.
Mr Barclay said: “Further pay increases would mean taking money away from frontline services at a time when we are tackling record waiting lists as a result of the pandemic.”
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0:48
Steve Barclay lists a number of factors putting pressure on the NHS and suggests that the trade unions have decided to strike at precisely this time.
On Thursday morning, the stalemate between unions and the government appeared to show no signs of abating, following two days of historic action from nurses and paramedics.
On top of ambulance worker strikes, NHS members of the Royal College of Nursing went on strike 15 and 20 December calling for a rise of 5% above inflation – 19.2% – as they said they have had a real terms pay cut of 20% since 2010.
They are also calling for better working conditions as nursing vacancies are at a record high so staff are stretched and regularly working beyond their shifts without extra pay.
In a tweet on Thursday, Mr Barclay said his door “is always open to talk to trade unions about concerns around working conditions”.
But he added: “We have an independent pay review body… and we will continue to defer to that process to ensure decisions balance the needs of staff and the wider economy.”
The pay review body (PRB) has recommended pay rises of around £1,400 – about 4% – for most NHS staff, but unions say this is not enough to keep up with soaring inflation.
The government says it can’t afford to make a new offer, but has not ruled out a new deal early next year.
Workers across several other industries are also set to strike in the build-up to Christmas.
Today, NHS Providers warned two days of strikes by nurses and paramedics will have a knock-on effect on appointments with a return to “very high numbers” of emergency calls in the coming days.
‘A challenging time for the NHS’
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, told Sky News that the next few days would be a “challenging time”.
Talking about structural issues impacting the NHS, she said: “Staff on the frontline are significantly overstretched and we need to see a real growth in the number of staff across the whole of the NHS.
“What we’ve got to see now is the government come to the table and have a serious discussion and negotiation about pay because this dispute is about pay and it’s also about working conditions and keeping patients safe.”
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7:44
The NHS is in for a
The chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, told Sky News that lack of investment in the NHS was now coming to the fore: “We know we had the 10 years of austerity. It meant we went into COVID with a hundred thousand vacancies, with a crumbling estate.
“So, what we’ve got now is a big gap between demand and capacity.”
He repeated calls to the government and trade unions to re-enter negotiations and to try to find a way of avoiding further strikes across the winter, saying: “We can’t afford to drift into further industrial action.”
While he said he understood both the concerns of the trade unions over pay, and the challenges facing the government over public spending, he warned: “We need leadership. We need imagination, because the health service cannot deal with a winter of industrial action without there being severe effects on patient wellbeing.”
‘Call 999 if you need to’
Appealing directly to anyone needing to use the NHS over the coming days, he said: “Primary care has not been affected by the industrial action… If you have concerns about your health, contact your GP. If you have an emergency, contact 999. If you’re not sure, ring 111. The services are there and do use them.”
The number of people calling 999 appeared to drop in some parts of England yesterday, and NHS Providers – the membership organisation for NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services – said there had been “varying levels of disruption” across the country.
It said some demand had shifted to other services or not materialised as expected.
But the organisation said demand for care across the whole healthcare system remained high and trust leaders were reporting ongoing delays to ambulance services and overcrowding at some accident and emergency departments.
He called emergency services but soon “water started seeping in”.
“I thought I’m going to have to get out, I’m going to have to smash a window,” Mr Randles said.
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He wound down his and his son’s windows, and climbed out before rescuing his son.
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‘Devastating’ flooding in Wales
“The water was chest high, I held him up as high as I could to keep him out of the water.”
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“It wasn’t raining so heavily, I’ve driven in much worse rain,” he added.
Mr Randles, a self-employed roofer who relies on the car for work, said he remained calm during the ordeal and was helped by the fact that Luca was asleep during the rescue.
Mr Randles’ partner Paige Newsome – who was not in the car at the time – said the incident was “really scary”.
“To think I could have actually lost them both – I don’t know how I would’ve lived,” she said.
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The road has been flooding for at least two decades, the couple said.
“What is it going to take for the council to sort it out? Does a fatal incident have to happen? It’s been going on for years,” Ms Newsome said.
The couple are worried about affording another car as well as Christmas celebrations.
But Mr Randles said: “I’m grateful that we got out safely and that we can spend his first birthday and Christmas as a family.”
Storm Bert has brought more than 80% of November’s average monthly rainfall in less than 48 hours to some parts, the Met Office said.
Around 300 flood warnings and alerts are in place in England, with another 100 in Wales and nine in Scotland, as heavy rain and thawing snow bring more disruption across the UK.
A major incident was declared by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council in South Wales after homes and cars were submerged in water.
‘It is devastating’
Gareth Davies, who owns a garage in Pontypridd, a town in Rhondda Cynon Taf, told Sky’s Dan Whitehead that flooding has put his small business “back to square one”.
As the River Taff burst its banks, the majority of the vehicles in Mr Davis’s garage were so damaged he says they will have to be written off.
“I am gutted,” he said, standing in his flooded garage, most of which is also covered in oil after a drum tipped over.
“How long is it going to take to sort out? I am going to lose money either way. I can’t work on people’s cars when I am trying to sort all of this out.
“It is devastating.”
Mr Davies said he has never had an issue with water coming into his garage until now.
Pointing to one car that had been hoisted into the air before water reached it, he said: “Lucky enough, I did come in this morning just to get that car up in the air.
“I don’t know what to say, I have been working flat out for two years to build this up and something like this happens, and it just squashes it all.
“This has put me back to square one.”
At least two to three hundred properties in South Wales have been affected by flooding, Councillor Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Borough Council, said on Sunday.
He said the affected buildings are a mixture of residential and commercial properties, after the weather turned out to be worse than what was forecast.
The Labour MP behind the assisted dying bill said she has “no doubts” about its safeguards after a minister warned it would lead to a “slippery slope” of “death on demand”.
In a strongly worded intervention ahead of Friday’s House of Commons vote, Ms Mahmood said the state should “never offer death as a service”.
She said she was “profoundly concerned” by the legislation, not just for religious reasons, which she has previously expressed, but because it could create a “slippery slope towards death on demand”.
Asked about the criticism, Ms Leadbeater said: “I have got a huge amount of respect for Shabana. She’s a very good colleague and a good friend.
“In terms of the concept of a slippery slope, the title of the bill is very, very clear.
“It is called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. It cannot include anybody other than people who are terminally ill, with a number of months of their life left to live. It very clearly states that the bill will not cover anybody else other than people in that category.”
She wants people who are in immense pain to be given a choice to end their lives, and has included a provision in the legislation to make coercion a criminal offence.
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The matter will be debated for the first time in almost 10 years on Friday, with MPs given a free vote, meaning they can side with their conscience and not party lines.
As a result, the government is meant to remain neutral, so the intervention of cabinet ministers has provoked some criticismfrom within party ranks.
Labour peer Charlie Falconer told Sky News Ms Mahmood’s remarks were “completely wrong” and suggested she was seeking to impose her religious beliefs on other people.
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8:51
Kevin Hollinrake says he will be in favour of the assisted dying bill
Asked about his comments, Ms Leadbeater said it was important to remain “respectful and compassionate throughout the debate” and “for the main part, that has been the case”.
She added: “The point about religion does come into this debate, we have to be honest about that. There are people who would never support a change in the law because of their religious beliefs.”
Ms Leadbeater went on to say she had “no doubts whatsoever” about the bill, which has also been objected by the likes of Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.
Asked if she has ever worried about people who don’t want to die taking their own lives because of the legislation, Ms Leadbeater said: “No, I don’t have any doubts whatsoever. I wouldn’t have put the bill forward if I did.
“The safeguards in this bill will be the most robust in the world, and the layers and layers of safeguarding within the bill will make coercion a criminal offence.”
There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.
As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.
“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.
“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”
Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.
“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”
But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.
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“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”
Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.
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“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”
Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”
Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.
“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.
Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.
Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.
“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.
The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.
“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”
Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.
Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.
Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.
“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.
“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”