The government want to ensure that the NHS provides a minimum level of service during strikes. What I want to know is what they consider a minimum level of service to be outside of strikes.
An ambulance dispatcher has spoken about their fears on the BBC website. This as a personal feel for me as my mother, who woke up with crushing central chest pain last year had to get to hospital by taxi as no ambulance went out to see her. Where I work, I saw a lady who had a similar issue, waking up at night with chest pain, but cancelled the ambulance when her pain went. I saw her the following morning and it looked like she had some heart damage as a result. My mother was fortunate, it was not her heart, but for too many, they do come to harm due to these waits.
While the government like to blame the pandemic, this was a problem for too many before it. It is just worse now. The issue of waiting times for ambulances was discussed in Parliament in 2016 and in 2018, there were reports of patients waiting more than a day for an ambulance as well.
Patients are dying in hospital corridors now, but again, this was happening before the pandemic, this article being in 2018.
I would love the government to state what standards are to be expected during a strike and to be accountable if those standards are not met when there is no strike action taking place.
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