RESIGNATIONS by Swindon ambulance workers could leave the town without enough staff to cope with emergencies, according to a disaffected employee.

The whistleblower, who feared he could lose his job for speaking out, said staff were unhappy with working conditions despite calling off strikes over Christmas, and said five workers in north Wiltshire have handed in their notice since the end of December.

The Great Western Ambulance Service worker said: "Morale is still at an all-time low.

"There are three members of staff planning on leaving Swindon station. Two members of staff are leaving Marlborough.

"The trust is not planning to replace them, to save money, so it is envisaged that many shifts will be running short of ambulances. There are normally four ambulances covering Swindon at any time. It puts stress on staff since they've only got four at any one time. When these three people leave, come the end of the month, they will have to rely on overtime to cover the shifts.

"They will not be guaranteed to find cover and it will cost the trust more in overtime payments.

"We are tired and stressed as it is and will feel under pressure to work extra hours.

"The few times there will be mistakes it will be blamed on staff being too tired to do the job properly."

Paramedics, technicians and control room staff planned to strike on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The strike was called off on December 22 after Unison representatives and the trust reached an agreement.

As revealed by the Adver last month, the threat of strike action followed employees setting up an online blog to air their grievances over pay and conditions.

Trust spokeswoman Melanie Chiswell said: "The trust requires there to be a workforce that is fit to provide the most appropriate pre-hospital care to its patients. This includes having full staffing.

"If and when staff resign the trust will provide cover by the use of overtime alongside a recruitment process for new ambulance staff.

"The trust is currently reviewing its ambulance resources and matching it to the demand patterns. To this end there may come changes to numbers of resources. However, it is likely these will increase in Swindon.

"Currently Swindon has four ambulances and two Rapid Response Vehicles during the day and three ambulances and one RRV at night. This increases at weekends.

"In February an additional resource will hit the streets of Swindon. Emergency care practitioners will work to reduce the number of patients needing to go to the hospital and thus improve care given to the people of Swindon."

The trust refused to confirm the number of resignations because it does not comment on HR matters.

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