CRISIS talks between the Great Western Ambulance NHS Trust (GWAS) and Unison are due to continue this week after a vote in favour of industrial action.

Discussions took place between the two parties until the early evening on Friday at the ACAS offices, in Bristol.

But no resolution was reached and the talks are set to begin again.

The meeting was arranged following the announcement of the ballot results in which an overwhelming majority Unison members working at Great Western Ambulance voted for industrial action.

The union balloted its 600 members on whether they wanted to take industrial action in protest at controversial shift changes introduced in November. The changes include different start times – in Wiltshire most 12-hour shifts were 7am to 7pm or 7pm to 7am, but now start times range between 5am and 9am, or 5pm and 9pm.

An overwhelming 96 per cent voted in favour of action.

Simon Newell, Unison regional organiser, said: “We are still talking. We simply have not made enough progress to end the dispute.

“Meaningful discussions have taken place and some progress has been made, but we’re still a long way off resolving our differences, so discussions will have to continue into next week.

“Before management imposed the changes the trust were achieving category A response times, but not now. The changes made are detrimental to patients’ health as well as our members.

“Management are just not listening to reason. Performance dropped following implementation of the changes, and this happened immediately after the changes, so the adverse weather conditions can’t be blamed for the drop.

“There is a willingness to negotiate which is refreshing, but a promising early start has petered out.”

Speaking on Friday, David Whiting, chief executive of GWAS, said he was disappointed with the results of the ballot.

“The changes we are making are about saving more lives,” he said.

“To do that was need to ensure we have trained staff and vehicles available when and where our patients need them.”

He added: “We believe that the majority of staff understand the need for these changes, indeed less than a quarter of our A&E road crews voted for a strike.”