Mass strike action: Northern Ireland Ambluance Service warns 'there will be ambulances on Thursday - but they will be limited'

This will be due to the general strike taking place that day, as public workers across the board walk off the job in protest at the declining value of their pay packets due to 18 months of high inflation.

The public has already been warned not to travel because it may be icy and there will be disruption to road gritting services (with rail and bus travel also cancelled for the entire day).

In a statement tonight, the Ambulance Service said: “We and trade union representatives have engaged to identify services and roles that will be exempt from strike action, to ensure that we can continue to respond to the most clinically urgent patients, thereby balancing the right to strike with patient safety.

"NIAS anticipates that there will be challenges throughout the period of the strike 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 refrain from 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.

"NIAS will keep you advised via a text messaging service and you should only call back if the patient’s condition has worsened, or you wish to cancel the ambulance.”

It added: “We stress that ambulances will still be available. However, they will be limited and we will prioritise patients with life-threatening injuries or illnesses.”