Ambulance strike is disgraceful?

[somethingdifferenttoday]

I just read this on bbc news, "Unions say life-threatening callouts will continue to be responded to over the next 24 hours but some urgent calls, for example for late-stage labour or a fall in the home, might not be answered."

Is it just me who thinks this is disgraceful?

Late stage labour at home or an elderly person laying with a broken hip ARE emergencies! I'm not sure how people in a caring profession can strike knowing these calls will go unanswered.

The unions talk about the backlog, paramedics stuck outside hospitals in ambulances unable to unload and go back out on the road but then admit they are striking for more pay rather than as a protest about that. The average salary of ambulance staff of £47,000 and a 4% pay rise isn't enough they claim but if they are given a pay rise, they will stop striking.

I think they do deserve more money (we all do with inflation) but I can't get past them supposedly being in a caring profession but taking steps that WILL cause extra deaths regardless.

I work in the private sector and have had zero pay rise. If I went on strike nobody would die and I'd be fired. This approach is abusing the critical position of their roles. I hope they are not given a pay rise as it will just demonstrate that blackmail works to other public sector workers and we will have even more strikes.

YABU = I support them striking
YANBU = I agree, it's disgraceful behaviour from a caring profession

I personally know of two old people who have fallen and broken hips in the last year and both waited between 8 and 12 hours for an ambulance. That's WHY the paramedics are on strike.

There is literally no service left. It's horrendously dangerous.

Fuck off

So when the government vote to give themselves a yearly pay award then that’s fine , just don’t any of you lot think about doing the same or it’s “demanding” or “ unfair” or “ holding the country to ransom”:

Well no! No one will be having contact with any paramedics today if you are a cat 2 call out!!

Yes the NHS is collapsing - well spotted.

Striking and killing people is NOT the answer.

So you think that giving THIS government the power to reduce workers' rights is the answer to the crisis in our essential services? Ok.

At least they are still alive. If they have a heart attack today that probably won't be the case.

You know people this has happend to already this morning? Or people this has happened to due to the systematic issues the strike is aiming to resolve?

I don’t care how bad conditions and pay are…you don’t decide that someone else’s child or partner or parent is going to be left to die do you can get better pay and conditions.

Unbelievable. NHS staff are not slaves, they're not robots. They are autonomous beings and actually they do get to decide whether or not they continue to tolerate the appalling conditions they have been working under for the last decade. Many have already decided they've had enough and left the profession altogether, or taken their skills abroad. Not to mention the number of medics and nurses who take their own lives due to intolerable pressure they are under. People aren't dying due to strikes, they are dying because of a recruitment and retention crisis leading to chronic staffing shortages that have been getting worse for years, and will only continue to get worse if something doesn't drastically change.

Venetiaparties You really should watch your blood pressure with all this angry posting. You'll probably combust when the teachers start their strikes in the new year.

Some breathtaking ignorance and stupidity on display here. I humbly suggest we all stop feeding the obvious trolls. Support the strikes to save the NHS.

ABSOLUTELY.

We can't have militant union bullies deciding if people live or die ffs!!!!!!

@venetiaparties do you actually have any solutions to suggest?

I repeat. The minimum staffing level proposed during the nurses strike is more generous than their normal staffing level. Think about that!

Don’t come at me with “so you’d rather they….something I didn’t say”

I blame the government for the deaths they are responsible for, but I am also blaming the strikers for the extra deaths they are responsible for as well.

Its a lie that it’s all been done and all been ignored. You’re just a propaganda parrot at this point and you are justifying killing the most vulnerable in our society just to make a point to the government.

Fucking sacrificial lambs. I am starting to not even recognise my own country. I cannot comprehend how and when human life became so cheap and we became so desensitised to death that posters are actually applauding strikers whose actions WILL result in many people dying over the next days and weeks as a DIRECT RESULT of their strike…for more pay.

No one will die if the teachers flounce to be fair.

YABU. Redirect your anger toward the government that have created this situation

In fact even if it was only a tenner it would encourage some to use their own car

“killing people”? If you’re so passionate about saving all the children and grannies, retrain!

So you'll support teachers then?

You are right. We need to leave that to the politicians. They have proved they have our best interests at heart.

What IS the answer then? You're ranting about why they shouldn't strike but you've offered nothing as an alternative about how pay and conditions can be improved. You think people are dying now – waiting until there are no longer enough paramedics to provide a service that's already broken.

Why on earth would you blame paramedics pushed into impossible and unsafe working conditions though, and not the government who have caused this mess?
Bizarre attitude. You can't just expect workers to take whatever shit is thrown at them and not hold the people in charge to account.

There are people who won't be here to see Christmas with their loved ones because of today's strikes. Do people really value human life so little?

Same goes for any other day because of the dreadful situation, stop being so emotive. Of course they value people's lives, that's why they do the job they do.

You are being very unreasonable and should have enabled voting.

Unfortunately it wont only be you spouting this kind of crap. What is disgraceful are the people voting in a government who are systematically driving the NHS to being irreparably broken so their chums can come in an privatise our medicines. See how disgraceful you find it when people cant afford to call out an ambulance they need, or when being ill is the leading cause of bankruptcy as it is in the USA.

I work in the private sector and have had zero pay rise. If I went on strike nobody would die and I'd be fired. This approach is abusing the critical position of their roles. I hope they are not given a pay rise as it will just demonstrate that blackmail works to other public sector workers and we will have even more strikes.

So what you're saying is they do an important job that lives depend on....but it's not important enough to be well paid and the conditions don't matter.
If the job is so important then the pay and conditions should reflect that...they don't so what's the answer? Ask nicely and things will improve?..well guess what? Asking nicely doesn't work when this Government thinks that £40bil (currently), is better spent on a fucking railway that benefits nobody, than the medical profession.

If the person with overall charge of finances within your company tells you that there is no money for a pay rise but finds money to buy a pub because a handful of people want one you'd be ok with that?