London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

Hospitals told to free up beds for ambulance strike

Hospitals told to free up beds for ambulance strike

Hospitals should free up beds to prepare for "extensive disruption" caused by ambulance staff strikes in England, NHS bosses have urged.

They said patients need to be safely discharged where possible to enable ambulance staff to hand over patients.

Ambulance staff are to walk out on 21 and 28 December in a dispute over pay.

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said freeing up more beds would be very difficult for hospitals to achieve.

"We don't hold up ambulances for fun," he told Radio 4's Today. "It really is difficult. We always want ambulances to return to the front line as quickly as possible and we've been struggling to do this in the last three years."

Asked what the solution was, he said it was not just provision of social care to enable elderly people to be discharged from hospital.

"We run our hospitals very tight compared to our European comparators," he said, adding: "It's not just about social care but about making sure our hospitals are big enough to cope."

The strike by ambulance staff on 21 December comes the day after a nurses' strike.

"It's something that makes everyone who works in this sector pretty anxious," said Dr Boyle

The co-ordinated walkout in England and Wales by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.

Unison, Unite and GMB are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.

The walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers.

In a letter addressed to hospital bosses, NHS chiefs in England have called for patients who complete emergency medical care to be moved out of emergency departments as quickly as possible.

Measures, such as placing additional beds in hospitals and creating "observation areas" should be put in place to ensure that patients arriving by ambulance are handed over to A&E in less than 15 minutes, they said.

Sir David Sloman, NHS England's chief operating officer, wrote in the letter co-signed by national medical director for England Professor Sir Stephen Powis and chief nursing officer for England Dame Ruth May that plans should be in place by Monday, 19 December.

Some outpatient appointments could be cut back to allow senior medical staff to be redeployed to emergency departments. But NHS chiefs say "every effort" should be made to maintain urgent cancer diagnostics or cancer treatment, with rescheduling to be considered as a last resort.

Ambulance handover delays in England have hit a new high, according to recent NHS data. Last week, one in six patients waited for more than an hour to be passed on to A&E teams.

NHS Providers' interim chief executive Saffron Cordery also said reducing handover delays would be "incredibly difficult to implement" because of factors including staff absences and rising flu admissions.

Ms Cordery said: "We understand why ambulance staff have voted for industrial action but it's vital that the government and unions talk urgently to find a way to prevent this and further strikes from happening."

The letter sent to NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards said bosses should create and co-ordinate plans on how to handle strike days by 19 December.

Staff have been offered an average rise of 4.75%, with a guaranteed minimum of £1,400 - but the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies.

Asked on Radio 4's Today how the government could afford to increase state pensions in line with inflation, but not NHS staff pay, Mr Shapps said: "Nurses and ambulance workers would have a pay rise that was recommended independently which I think is the right way to do this."

He said expectations for pay increases were greater since energy prices began rising and the subsequent high inflation rates, but people will "all end up much worse off" if ministers award inflation-busting pay rises.

Mr Shapps added that following the advice of the pay review bodies was "right and proper".

Following an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday, the prime minister's official spokesman said the number of ambulances available to attend calls would be reduced "significantly".

Armed forces could be deployed to hospital trusts ahead of the strikes, Downing Street has confirmed.

The Police Federation has also suggested police officers may also be called upon to drive ambulances.

Nurses took strike action on Thursday in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in a dispute over pay.

Figures released by NHS trusts in England and Northern Ireland show at least 19,000 patients had their surgeries and appointments postponed because of strike.

Ministers had predicted that a larger number of around 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries would be lost.

Royal College of Nursing members are expected to walk out for a second time on 20 December

NHS England bosses have warned of "extensive disruption" ahead of ambulance strikes

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×