EDITORIAL This week, for the first time ever, ambulance workers in New Zealand went on strike . First on Tuesday, then again on Saturday. The vote to withdraw their labour followed nine months of fruitless bargaining for additional funding.
During the periods covered by the strike, 70% of the usual number of ambulances were available. “Those ambulances will be reserved and responding to life-threatening incidents only,” Hato Hone St John’s deputy chief executive of ambulance operations, Dan Ohs, said ahead of the strike. “About 50% of our incidents would normally be classed as life-threatening.
So we will have 70% of our ambulances to respond to about 50% of incidents.”.