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

YABU.
When was the last time you went to work and got physically/sexually assaulted, sworn at, threatened and insulted just for trying to do your job while working a ridiculous rota with a boss breathing down your neck wanting more?
All while you're trying to save someone's life, or make someone as comfortable as you can, often while trying to reassure family or friends as well as the patient.
I couldn't do it.

this

People are dying due to lack of ambulances now. The service is on its knees. That’s the point of the strike.
The wages you’ve stated for “ambulance staff” are woefully inaccurate. The starting wage for a newly qualified paramedic is approx £27k. That’s for being the lead person in an emergency, attending to horrific RTAs, children not breathing, unstable and dangerous mental health patients in crisis. Putting their own safety at risk to help YOU. Imagine seeing all that in a 12.5 hour shift and going home to sleep at night.
I 100% support the strikes. Give your head a wobble.

@sst1234 but it’s already happening - nothing to do with the strikes 😢

YABU, I am sure many don't want to leave the profession, they can't change employers. What do they do? How do they let us know just how broken the system has become? The statement made by the government borders on victim blaming.

YABU
It’s the government that’s destroying the ambulance service, NHS, social care and the country in general.
Austerity and Brexit have done for us.

I can understand the different perspectives, but overall is it really the best course of action to have eg, hospital workers, striking ?

People are already not getting ambulances because there are none to send.

strike staffing in some areas might be better than normal service.

If services were better funded, more people would want to do it… more ambulances on the road and therefore a better service. It’s the same with nursing. If you fund the service properly then you end up with a better service. If you take all the money away people stop working there and the people who are left can’t cover the work and so it spirals.

It is never about ‘let’s keep a terrible service with awful conditions and just pay everyone more’. The soundbite, though, goes ‘well if I’m doing a terrible job role then I want more money for it’.

YABU.
The service is so fucked because of the state of social care and the NHS due to years of "austerity" and the deliberate destruction of the health system (to force us into private health care).
I live with a paramedic the job they started 20 years ago is very different from the one now. Unless radical change happens the number of preventable deaths that we already have day in, day out will get so much more.

The government website says the average salary for a paramedic is £25,655 to £39,027. Not sure where you’ve got your £47,000 from.

Do you not read the news? Elderly folk with broken hips are lying on the floor for 24 hours, before the strikes. Paramedics are picking up one patient and spending their entire shift queueing outside A&E. Any damage done on the strike day is tiny compared to the damage if HCPs don't stand up for themselves and continue to leave in droves.....

Averages are always skewed, the majority won't be on anywhere near £40k plus.

Those complaining about patient safety are obviously clueless about how dire things are and how much of a last resort this is. People are already dying because there simply isn't the resource to get to them within the required window. People are already waiting 30 hours plus in some cases with broken bones and unable to move from a fall in agony. People waiting for hours when they get to A&E.

Pay isn't a fix all, but it will probably entice some paramedics back and make it a more appealing career for others. Healthcare staff are leaving in droves, something has to be done if people want a functioning health service, it is the government not listening which is causing the problems.

YABU.
You know people in caring professions aren't saints exempt from every day events such as paying bills and rent.

They deserve more money.

Feel free to join a caring profession and not strike of it bothers you so much

But those people would have been due to the NHS being run down by this government, not by the strike today? How do you suggest action is taken to save the NHS?

If you think that the impact to service is so wrong, what did you do about this yesterday or last week? People were dying then too, because they are waiting too long.

Exactly

Probably propaganda for the right wing media determined to keep this ineffective Tory government in power.

And if I were unlucky enough to find myself in that position, I would direct all my pain and anger at the government, for putting them in a position where they had no choice but to strike. All this could have been avoided.

They have tried lobbying, debating in parliament, exposés to the press, showing the number of preventable deaths. None if it has worked. What else can they do?
Paramedics have NEVER striked before. They aren't doing it lightly.

YANBU
I agree pay and conditions need to be bettered, but I disagree completely with striking for any NHS/ healthcare worker. It’s literally holding all our lives hostage to make a fucking point. Innocents WILL DIE because they chose to strike. It’s a fucking callous disregard for human life is what it is. They think their pay packet is worth more than human lives.

I have nothing but contempt for the ambulance and nurse strikers. They didn’t have to strike. They really didn’t. And looking at photos of the nurses grinning ear to ear because it’s some fucking jolly for them while the patients they abandoned are suffering and dying just shows how little the public think of the lives of the vulnerable.

strike staffing in some areas might be better than normal service.

It was the same for the nursing strike, bloody ridiculous isn't it.

Just because you are working in a caring profession doesn't mean you can be taken advantage off till breaking point!

YABU. You clearly think it’s a necessary, vital service, because you’re complaining about the disruption during strike action. Those working for vital services therefore need to be paid their worth and have working conditions protected.

I agree with you op they are a disgrace should we all go on strike due to suffering from low wages shop workers carers etc.
They get more perks and pay than anybody else disgusting but only on mumsnett will you get slated for thinking this.

The ‘average salary’ is a manipulated figure, it will include senior managers at high rates and is for a very experienced worker. This figure is being pushed by the government influenced media and needs to be questioned. Most paramedics are band 5. This is a TOP rate of £31kish which they reach AFTER 5 years of service. Same for nurses. It is not enough to manage on in many areas.

YABU OP and you haven’t enabled voting.

A late stage labour where life is at risk would be a priority. A fall where life is at risk would be priority. Unite have said that staff will abandon picket lines if required. Not many professions do this.

Please use your vote at the next general election, this situation is the fault of the government that has been on power for over 10 years.