Ambulance workers strike over pay and conditions right across the North West
Report by ITV Granada Correspondent Andy Bonner
Paramedics are spending the day on picket lines, as a bitter dispute over pay and conditions with the government continues.
Up to 25,000 ambulance workers across England and Wales have gone on strike.
Paramedics, call handlers, drivers and technicians from the Unison and GMB unions are taking part in staggered industrial across a 24-hour period.
Staff took to picket lines in St Helens at first light on Wednesday morning.
Tom Henderson has worked in the profession for eight years, working out of Whiston Hospital. He told ITV News that huge waits to drop off patients at A&E are making the job impossible.
Elsewhere, Jenny Giblin, 38, a paramedic who braved the cold on a picket line in Birkenhead said: "I've been a paramedic for seven years and it's definitely got worse.
"We used to have to queue outside hospitals at certain times, like with winter pressures, but now it's every day. Corridors are almost like wards.
"It's demoralising. I dread coming into work sometimes because I know what's going to happen."
Paramedic Dave McNeill, 55, outside Birkenhead Fire and Ambulance station, said: "Sometimes you can spend eight hours waiting on a hospital corridor with one patient.
"Crews end up taking two or three patients so other crews can get back on the road, and that's not good, in my opinion, it's not safe.
"People don't enjoy going on strike. It goes against the grain of what we do this job for."
Lisa McCabe, another paramedic in Birkenhead, said she was on strike due to the working conditions.
"It really is heartbreaking, and also we're getting to jobs three or four hours late.
"I had an old lady who had arrested when we got there because she waited up to three hours and couldn't breathe.
"That really shook me to the core. I was angry rather than upset.
"Going on strike is the last thing we want to do but I think our voice needs to be heard."
Paramedic and Unison Rep Sam Collins says working conditions have left staff apologising to those who they're trying to care for.
Since 2015, he's looked after patients around Macclesfield and Congleton.
He said: "I feel like I've let my patients down even though I have no direct control over ambulance availability... it's me that's facing that patients, it's me that they've called in their hour of need and I've not turned up and it's taken it's toll."
It comes as 14 health unions, representing more than a million NHS staff, said they will not submit evidence to the NHS pay review body for the next wage round "while the current industrial disputes remain unresolved".
Instead, the unions, which represent ambulance staff, nurses, porters, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists and other NHS workers in England, called for direct pay talks with ministers.
NHS Providers has warned the NHS will be hit harder by Wednesday's strike than one held in December as more staff, including call handlers, go on strike.
Unison has balloted around 15,000 of its members who are striking in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West.
NHS England has told patients to continue to call 999 for life-threatening emergencies but to use 111, GPs and pharmacies for non-urgent needs.
It said some people may be asked to make their own way to hospital, though it urged people to seek medical advice from 111 or 999 before doing so.
Speaking on Sky News, Health Secretary Steve Barclay was asked whether he agreed with comments by Business Secretary Grant Shapps that striking paramedics were being "reckless".
Mr Barclay said: "If there are delays to ambulances, then it is concerning in terms of our ability to get that care.
"It is clearly a concern as to the impact it has on patient safety."
In the North West, the ambulance service there urged the public to keep ambulances for people with life-threatening injuries and illnesses.
"Other patients requiring hospital treatment will likely be asked to take alternative transport, such as a taxi or get a lift from family or friends," it said.