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

Yup!

If the gov agree to a bankrupting 19% this will all be over tomorrow.

It is not about patient welfare, it is not about conditions. This is about

MONEY MONEY MONEY

YABVU

At the start of Covid in April 2020 I was redeployed to work in ICU (I’m a nurse). One of the first patients I looked after was a paramedic who (along with his colleagues) had caught covid as they weren’t given the proper PPE when seeing to potentially positive pts (this was before testing)

I’ll never forget nursing ‘one of our own’ and holding the iPad for him to see his family who couldn’t physically be with him, he couldn’t talk as he was ventilated via a tracheostomy. All whilst Boris and co were clapping us, I honestly thought (we all did) that our hard work would be recognised and we would finally get the pay rise we so deserve. But nope, nothing, just worsening conditions the general public are finally hearing about.

I left the end of that year with PTSD, severe anxiety and burnout which I’m still struggling with.

We can’t continue working like this, a pay rise would be a start as it might encourage more people into the job which in turn will improve conditions for staff to stay working in.

Thankfully this pt went home but suffered long covid so couldn’t return to work.

It is sad to see. The demands are so out of kilter

I’m short sighted? and how many nursing and paramedic positions will the NHS have to cut to get to a 19% pay raise for those left? Hmmm? The money has to come from somewhere.

Let me think. Hmm, maybe proper government funding raised by closing tax loopholes for cabinet ministers, Tory donors and government mates? Having proper scrutiny and limitations on government contracts to avoid wasting billions on useless PPE? Not paying for Johnson's eye-waveringly expensive lawyers?

Oh dear do yourself a favour and look up negotiation

The NHS is kept running by the goodwill of the staff. Has been for a while. That needs to change. They need fair pay and safe working conditions.

Exactly what I was about to say.

I would still blame the government. They aren't even negotiating.

Probably got them from the Daily Mail!

YABU

I typed an answer but....I can't even try with this.

Idratherbepaddleboarding
Yes right and cause even more problems for the uk than what's happening already.
All sectors deliver a essential service which would impact massively on the uk if everybody did the same none of us are immune to the cost of living. I work in a area where I do 14 hour shifts and I get punched and kicked should I go on strike because of low wages and lack of staff.

@SnowlayRoundabout

Clearly the strikes aren’t working though

As I said let’s hope no one supporting the strike has a family / friend who doesn’t get the help they need from a paramedic today

Im sure there will be always one thread tomorrow where someone was affected by what’s happening today 😞

YANBU but you will get your arse handed to you on here. I don’t know anyone who supports a 19% pay rise in RL.

They can wait out the strikers. As the death toll mounts, public sentiment will swing against the strikers. The strikers are stupid to think the government cares about lives. This is the same government that let covid tear through the care homes and decimate the elderly. The same government that has caused excess deaths of tens of thousands of disabled- causing a UN reprimand.

The strikers have a gun to the heads of patients and the government is shrugging and going, go ahead, kill them. This government doesn’t care and isn’t going to negotiate with healthcare terrorists.

Be angry with the government.

This was written in 2015. Still no change

https://amp.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/dec/19/ambulance-service-crew-restart-your-heart-exhausted

I don't know about ambulance staff requests.

But nurses: Royal College of Nursing has requested a 5% pay rise for NHS nurses on top of inflation, making it a total pay rise of about 17%.19 Nov 2022. 17%? That seems excessive.

Brilliant reply

Clearly the strikes aren’t working though

Oh, l think they are working though. Very well. Sunak will have to back down.

Yes it is your right. Don’t denigrate other workers if you don’t exercise your right as a union member (or join a union).

This is very confusing. Surely if you believe that the ambulance service striking will lead to loss of life and that is totally unacceptable, this is as much true in April or May as it is today? I don’t believe for a minute that you would be any more supportive of the reasons that people are striking in a few months.

people have explained multiple times on this thread that Cat 2 call lights are not being responded to in an appropriate timeframe. The thing that you’re worried about is already happening, and the strikes are aimed at improving this. The fact that this can be explained so articulately by multiple people, and you still choose to say any deaths will be on the hands of NHS staff, leads me to think that you’re not posting in good faith.

Oh dear do yourself a favour and look up what a heart attack looks like without an ambulance.

Clue: the morgue is that way >>>>