​Ambulance availability warning as health strike resumes on Friday

The latest 24-hour walkout will affect a number of facilities with health unions staging pickets at several hospitals.​

A notice on the Belfast Health Trust’s website states: “We anticipate some disruption as a result of industrial action by members of Unison and Nipsa.

“The message to patients and service users remains that they should attend any planned appointments unless contacted by the Trust to advise otherwise.

“We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause patients, service users and families.”

Confirming yesterday that no resolution to the industrial dispute had been found, a Unison spokesperson said: “Unison members across the health service in Northern Ireland remain determined not to be ignored and take a seat at the back of the bus. Strike action goes ahead as planned.”

A spokesman for NI Ambulance Service said: “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.”

The spokesman added: “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.”