BOTH ambulance workers and nurses are striking today in a continued dispute over pay and conditions.

The NHS is expecting upheaval across England as nurses from the RCN - including at the Northumbria Healthcare and Newcastle Hospitals NHS trusts - stage walk-outs alongside GMB and Unite paramedics, call handlers and other staff at ambulance trusts.

It is the first time ambulance workers and nurses have walked out on the same day.

Michael Hunt, GMB regional organiser, said: "The NHS is in crisis. 

"When ambulance crews are responding to patients and then taking them to hospitals, we've had some records of people being sat outside A&E in the back of an ambulance for 23 hours waiting for a bed to be clear.

"Not only is that not good for the patient, that's holding an ambulance up, because the ambulance can't leave while they've got a patient in the back waiting for a bed. It's a vicious circle.

"This is all down to pay and terms and conditions across the NHS. If they sorted the pay out, it would attract more people into the NHS which would mean there would be more people available to sort out issues with beds etc."

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Mr Hunt added: "Today we are seeing the biggest industrial action ever taken in the NHS. When is the government going to notice?"

"We've got ambulance workers who are having to use food banks, we've got ambulance workers who in order to feed their kids, are going without meals themselves," he said.

"These are emergency services - that really shouldn't be happening in this day and age.

"All we're asking for is a decent pay rise."

The government has said the unions' pay demands are unaffordable.

Ambulance workers from the GMB union have not formed a picket line in Hexham today out of respect for Holly Newton.

"The North East ambulance crews appreciate that the whole town is in shock at the moment about what happened with Holly," said Mr Hunt.

"They've said that it just wouldn't feel right, stood there waving flags and people driving past and beeping horns, at such a sad time."

Mr Hunt said he wanted to say a "massive thank you" to members of the public in Hexham for the support they have received on previous strike days.

"When they've turned up at the picket line with cups of tea and tins of biscuits, it's really been heartfelt by the ambulance crews that people understand why they're doing this, and they're very thankful for it because they were very nervous about doing it in the first place," he said.

"The public vote of solidarity has been fantastic."

Nurses are set to strike again on Tuesday, ambulance workers again on Friday and physiotherapists on Thursday.