NATIONAL AMBULANCE SERVICE workers have begun a 24-hour strike, with the HSE warning of a significant impact on services. 

Ambulance personnel, including medical technicians, paramedics, advanced paramedics, paramedic specialists and paramedic supervisors, will continue their industrial action until 8am tomorrow. 

Under contingency plans, the 999 phone service will be fully operational and priority will be given to patients experiencing emergencies like heart attacks or with serious injuries from road accidents.

The HSE has warned there “will be delays responding to non-life-threatening calls for ambulances” today and tomorrow. 

The health service said the capacity of the NAS to respond during the strike will be “significantly impacted”.

“During this time, consider if another healthcare option might be suitable,” it said.

Last month, Unite and Siptu members voted in favour of industrial action due to what they refer to as management’s ongoing failure to implement the 2020 Roles and Responsibilities Review.

The unions say qualifications, clinical responsibilities and operational duties of ambulance personnel have expanded significantly in recent years.

They also say a 5% increase recommended under the benchmarking II process has not been delivered.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said paramedics have been left “with no option but to take action to secure long-overdue recognition and pay commensurate with their skills and expertise”.

“They have Unite’s full support in this fight,” she said.

Unite regional officer Eoin Drummey said the HSE “can resolve this dispute by agreeing to implement the 2020 review immediately and without preconditions”.

“Our members would prefer to be on the front line saving lives, but they have been forced on to the picket line to demand that the vital work they do serving communities across Ireland is finally recognised,” he said.

The Irish Patients Association said that while it recognises the “immense pressure ambulance personnel are working under”, it believes the situation has moved beyond a routine industrial actions and “into an area of legitimate patient-safety concern.”

“Patients must not be used as pawns by any party in an industrial dispute,” it said.

“We are not calling for political interference in the outcome of negotiations. We are calling for every possible effort to help ensure the conditions exist for meaningful and urgent engagement before risks deepen further.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin has called on Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to “engage with workers and implement an agreed pay and grading modernisation plan.”

“The Minister for Health cannot stand back while ambulance workers are forced into industrial action,” health spokesperson David Cullinane said.

“The Minister must intervene directly, engage meaningfully with workers, and ensure that ambulance workers get the respect, recognition and safe staffing that they deserve.”