STRIKING midwives waving blue ‘Enough is Enough’ banners were on picket lines at hospitals across the region yesterday, talking strike action for the first time in their royal college’s 133 year history.

One of them, Debra Hope, a midwife at Darlington Memorial Hospital said; “We are upset we haven’t had a pay rise for four years. We are missing about £4,000 a year from our salaries. They won’t give us a one per cent rise when MPs are going to get nearly 10 per cent.”

She stressed that RCM members were providing urgent care coverage while their colleagues were on strike. The RCM was among six unions taking part in the four hour strike, including Unison, GMB and Unite.

Sandra White, vice-chairwoman of Unison for County Durham, who was among around 60 pickets outside the University Hospital of North Durham, said: “It has been a really good day. We are getting excellent support from the public.”

The North East Ambulance Service said staff handled 217 calls and attended 150 incidents during the strike and while some patients did experience delays contact centre nurses kept in touch until an ambulance arrived. Other callers were able to make their own way to hospital.

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer for the NEAS said: “We would like to thank the general public for their support in helping us to get to the most seriously ill and injured patients.”

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service said the strike had a minimal affect on the service provided and thanked health unions for cooperating on drawing up contingency plans to ensure those patients who needed emergency care the most were looked after.

A spokesman for the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: “Around 150 staff took action out of 800. These included clinical, laboratory and admin staff. A small number of outpatient appointments and planned procedures have been rescheduled.”

A spokesperson for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust said: “The industrial action hasn’t had any impact on clinical services while at South Tees NHS Foundation Trust officials said only around 100 staff went on strike which resulted in “a few” outpatient clinics being cancelled and appointments rescheduled.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “We absolutely will talk to the unions, we will talk to them if they’re prepared to look to reform the system of increments, which is unclear and unfair.

“I recognise frontline staff do a magnificent job in the NHS. We have had more than 650 NHS volunteers who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to help tackle the Ebola crisis.

“We’re offering them all a one per cent rise. The majority of NHS staff get an automatic three per cent increment but we can’t afford to give a one per cent rise to people already getting that.”

He said it would be “irresponsible” to accept a pay package that means the NHS has to lay off nurses.

Mr Hunt said the NHS had “turned the corner” after the Mid Staffs scandal by recruiting an extra 5,000 nurses.