Paramedics on the picket line have told how lengthy ambulance waits are getting “worse by the day” and they insisted strikes are a last resort as “no-one is taking us seriously”.

Wednesday’s walkout saw ambulance workers and paramedics take industrial action over pay and conditions, in the first such move in a generation.

The GMB union’s South West and Wales representative tweeted a video of himself alone at Pentwyn service station less than an hour into the day-long walkout – saying all striking members had to be called away from the picket line on emergency calls.

Nathan Holman said: “Just shows, we’re still responding to the public.”

But a former Royal Marine who now works for the Welsh Ambulance Service said he had made the “difficult decision” not to follow suit.

Harry Maskers, 34, said: “I won’t be responding to critical calls, like many of my colleagues who are doing the same.

“All the calls we respond to on a day-to-day basis are critical anyway, so personally I feel that if you come in and do the derogations nothing really changes.

“Every shift feels like a strike because most of the time we’re not responding to calls.

“A lot of the time I’ll sign on to an ambulance and the first job of the day is to go down to the hospital, relieve the night or day crew, and then I will spend my whole shift outside the hospital.”

Paramedic Ryan Carruthers said while many in his profession are struggling with heating and food bills, his main reasons for striking are that patients deserve better treatment, coupled with issues over a lack of funding and staff.

The 23-year-old insisted Wednesday’s action is a last resort: “Obviously it’s not what we wanted but this is what we have to do.

“We deserve better pay and better working conditions. I feel it’s the only way for it to get the attention it deserves. No-one is taking us seriously.

“It’s been going on for a very long time and still nothing has changed.”

A colleague at the same site described the situation facing many ambulance trusts as “getting worse and worse by the day”.

Student paramedic Sam Catcliffe said: “We needed to take action to get our voice and point across. Hopefully something gets resolved from it.”

Parked ambulancesAmbulances parked outside as paramedics, ambulance technicians and call handlers walked out (Jacob King/PA)

Unite union representative Steve Thompson said the walkout is about trying to retain and improve services, as well as pay.

Mr Thompson said of the UK Government: “This is about telling them that we are not going to allow it (a deterioration in services) to happen. We are not going to roll over.”

Stuart Fegan, a GMB union’s senior organiser, said public support for the strike has been “absolutely overwhelming”.

He added: “I’ve been an official for the GMB for 25 years and I’ve never actually seen this level of public support for a group of striking workers.”