According to Van Bekhoven, the ambulance comes only if ‘someone on the street has a heart attack, for example. But if you break your leg at home or have had a stroke, you really have to come to the hospital yourself.’
But according to the paramedics the emergency is high. Even without strikes, ambulances take a long time to reach a patient, says Van Bekhoven. ‘In normal cases, the waiting time is already twenty hours. In some cases, the patient is already dead when the ambulance arrives”.
Emergency numbers
It is also seen that in some regions the emergency numbers are no longer even called. elsewhere people are advised not to do anything exciting, to leave the car at home or at least not to go on the highway. And you are also asked not to use alcohol. “For the British, this is an important task four days before Christmas,” says Van Bekhoven. But British Prime Minister Sunak does not want to meet the staffing demands. “The government is firm and does not want wages to rise by more than four percent.”
According to Van Bekhoven, the British are already looking at their healthcare differently. ‘The NHS was more popular than the monarchy, there was nothing better than the hallowed house of the NHS. People come back from there, out of necessity, but there’s still a lot of sympathy for people who work in healthcare.’
But on the other hand, the salary of people working in the NHS hasn’t changed since 2008. ‘An ambulance worker starts out earning more than €30,000 a year, but in reality it should be more than €40,000. The pressure on the government is mounting, but the answer is ‘no’, although there is understanding for the situation of the employees,’ says Van Bekhoven.
Dead point
The impasse will therefore continue for a while, thinks Van Bekhoven. But a lot depends on public opinion. Strikes are political events, so far a majority of Britons agree with strikers, but this appreciation is waning.’
Sunak’s strategy may also aim at the fact that the longer the strike lasts, the greater the lack of understanding for it. ‘The longer the strikes last, the less understanding there will be for the chaos and upheaval of society and care. I think this is the government’s goal.’