Ambulance workers with the Unite union have announced that they will take part in strike action later this month.

This comes as other ambulance workers with Unison announced similar industrial action going into 2023.

These strikes are occurring thanks to a bitter dispute over pay, staffing, and patient safety.

The strikes will see more than 2,600 ambulance workers in the West Midlands, North West, North East, East Midlands, and Wales walkout.

However, despite major action taking place, the trade union said it will work with local trusts to ensure essential 'life and limb' ambulance coverage.

Unite said that these strikes mark an escalation in action taken by the union with more workers taking part than in a similar strike last month.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s ambulance workers have been left with no option but to take industrial action. They are fighting to protect patients, to save the ambulance service and the NHS itself, as well as providing for their families.

“The Government has had months to intervene and end this dispute but has failed to do so. They choose to attack NHS workers rather than get more money for the NHS from profiteering companies. They repeatedly refuse to sit down and negotiate in order to resolve the dispute.

“The talks the Government has lined up for Monday yet again look like nothing more than a smokescreen and are clearly not a negotiation on NHS pay.

“But this is real and urgent. NHS staff need their bills paying now. Vital health workers are leaving the service now. Patients are suffering and dying now. The Prime Minister needs to step up to the moment and lead. That is what he is paid for.”

Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab added: “The Government has repeatedly missed open goals to resolve this dispute. Unions have been invited to talk and then told they can’t talk about pay, in a pay dispute.

“The Government must get its head out of the sand and finally enter into serious negotiations about pay in order to avert further industrial action. The general public must be as mystified as our ambulance workers as to why the Government is not moving heaven and earth to solve this dispute.”

South Wales Argus: PA - Ambulance strikes are taking place later this monthPA - Ambulance strikes are taking place later this month (Image: PA)

When are ambulance strikes taking place?

The ambulance strikes will take place on January 23 with workers from Unison also taking action on this date.

Workers in Wales, the North West, North East, and East Midlands will take part in 24-hour strikes while those in the West Midlands will strike for 12 hours.

Welsh ambulance workers with Unison will also be taking an initial day of industrial action on January 19.

Unison and GMB will also be holding joint ambulance strikes next Wednesday.

NHS Providers’ interim chief executive, Saffron Cordery, said: “Another strike will pile even more pressure on already overstretched NHS services.

There is huge strain on the whole health and social care system and trusts fear that more strikes will just make an extremely challenging situation worse.

“We understand how strongly ambulance staff feel and how below-inflation pay awards, the cost-of-living crisis, severe staff shortages and ever-increasing workloads have brought them to this point.

“There must be serious talks, specifically about pay, between the Government and unions to avert any more strikes.”