Ambulance workers across Surrey and Hampshire will go on strike on December 21 and 28 in a dispute over pay.

Paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff at three south coast ambulance trusts will join the industrial action.

The walkout has been coordinated by the three main ambulance unions – Unison, GMB and Unite – and will affect non-life threatening calls only.

However, it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.

The strike dates are as follows for each trust:

South Central Ambulance Service workers will walk out from 6am to 6pm on Wednesday, December 21 and 12.01am to 11.59pm on Wednesday, December 28.

South East Coast Ambulance Central Service workers will walk out from 6am to 11.59pm on Wednesday, December 21 and 12.01am to 11.59pm on Wednesday, December 28.

South West Ambulance Central Service workers will walk out from 6am to 11.59pm on Wednesday, December 21 and 12.01am to 11.59pm on Wednesday, December 28.

Workers across the ambulance services and some NHS Trusts have voted to strike over the Government’s imposed four per cent pay award – which the GMB union describes as “another massive real terms pay cut”.

GMB representatives will now meet with all three trusts to discuss requirements for life and limb cover.

Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “Ambulance workers – like other NHS workers – are on their knees.

“Demoralised and downtrodden, they’ve faced twelve years Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the frontline of a global pandemic and now face the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

“No one in the NHS takes strike action lightly – today shows just how desperate they are.

“This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay. A third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient.

“Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse.

“GMB calls on the Government to avoid a Winter of NHS strikes by negotiating a pay award that these workers deserve.”

It comes as Royal College of Nursing members are also preparing to go on strike on December 15 and 20 – albeit not at the Royal Surrey, Frimley Health or Hampshire Hospitals NHS trusts, after the minimum turnout requirement was not met to trigger strike action.