Pickets were placed around ambulance dispatch centres across the country at 8am this morning as a long-running row over pay escalates.
Today's strike is the first of a series of strikes planned if the conflict over pay is not resolved.
Around 2,000 members of SIPTU and Unite held a work to rule yesterday ahead of heading to the pickets this morning.
The dispute involves emergency medical technicians, paramedics, advanced paramedics, specialist paramedics and paramedic supervisors. Unions have accused the HSE of failure to execute recommendations of an independent report on updating staff staff salary scales to reflect changes in responsibilities and workload over the last 15 years.
Dublin can still rely on Dublin Fire Brigade ambulances, however counties across the country will be more vulnerable. People seeking medical care are recommended to travel to emergency departments over the course of the 24 hour strike.
The HSE said that “any member of the public should contact 999 or 112 if someone is experiencing a life-threatening illness or injury," as paramedics say they will leave pickets for emergency calls. A spokesperson for the HSE said: “999 phone service is fully operational and under the HSE’s contingency plan, priority will be given to patients facing emergencies such as cardiac or respiratory arrest, and those experiencing serious trauma such as that arising from road traffic accidents."
SIPTU’s Ambulance Division Organiser, John McCamley, said they have provided emergency cover whilst they strike today. From the picketline in Dublin today, he told RTE their members "have provided emergency cover for the high acuity calls and pediatric calls".
"Strike or no strike, there are major delays in the ambulance service and that's down to staffing and part of this dispute is to attract people into the ambulance service. The HSE's own report indicates that the ambulance service needs double the amount of staff. We're not going to attract those staff if we can't pay them the correct wages compared to other health professionals. We call on the HSE, the Department of Health, to enter into discussions without any preconditions. And this has been the crux of this issue," McCamley said.
"The HSE insists on discussing further modernisation, further changes, but for the last 15 years, every time we've agreed to modernisation changes, the pay rates haven't followed. So the dispute, really, centers on the fact we do not trust that if we agreed to further changes that they will actually honour the agreements to pay higher wages," he continued.
