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

Because demand is too high, because our population has exploded and aged simultaneously.

1972 population - 46 million
2022 population - 68 million

1972 - life expectancy - 77 years on average
2022 - life expectancy - 82 years on average

There is the problem, right there in black and white.

An extra 24 million users with a longer life expectancy.

We can not carry on as we are, ignoring the maths. Mathematically what we are trying to do is impossible. The NHS is not just an emergency service, it has expanded beyond all recognition.

If you really are interested, look at the future stats and that will scare the shit out of you.

It could be me lying on the floor waiting for them to come, it could be one of my relatives. I'd still be blaming this government and previous tory governments. I want there to be ambulance workers, dont want them going to work elsewhere so I want them properly paid. If money had not been wasted on contracts for cronies there would be money for this.

Labour was short before Brexit as well.

yes, with an ageing retiring population and then people voted to leave knowing labour would reduce further without freedom of movement. Its a lot sorter since 2020 when many left at the start of covid and will never return.

workers are needed, those at the top can't make money without those at the bottom and those at the bottom are in short supply therefore have more leverage

As an adult with sound mind that's when you can make a proper living will, one that allows you to say if I have x y z and its progressed to x y z. We all die at some point. I know if it was my parents, I would be able to make that decision because I know my parents wouldn't want to suffer like that. They have already said so seeing my nan with dementia.

How would you manage the millions of people who need care right now, whilst you dismantle the NHS and start again?

NHS is not unsustainable ? rubbish! it functioned (sort of) in 2019, it did after an even worse financial collapse in 2008.

It is in the state it is in because of Austerity and Brexit (less staff), which why other simialr state /tax payer funded health systems across Europe are working.

I actually agree it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, but there has to be some kind of service in the interim, serviced by employees that need decent pay and working conditions, so we're just going round in circles.

I think Jonathan Pie sums up the situation nicely here. OP, maybe take a look at this (not in front of the kids though), and think whether he might have a point:

www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/12/15/jonathan-pie-sweary-rant-about-strikes/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1671123461

Venetiaparties
We need new laws to prevent this ever happening again.

Why would you want to remove a fundamental right?
And if you are only talking about essential services then surely you agree that they should get a wage that prevents them from needing to strike.

I am glad you are enjoying it, no one else is laughing though. Just you.

Drive yourself to hospital the next time you have a medical emergency, then.

Fucking hell, the blinkered/selfish attitudes of some people on this thread.

Because we have an ageing population and a government that has failed to fund social care.
I support the strike - these are the key workers everyone clapped during the pandemic. Years of real term pay cuts. Chronic understaffing and pressure. Any impacts of this strike are on the government's shoulders

I assume we would have a managed transition. We need to switch models. Look at the Australian model or Swiss. It works for them.

He missed one thing to add to that...the fact MPs are giving themselves a 5% payrise and we all know MP salarys are far above £30k!

So why wasn't that planned for ? 10 years of Austerity is not a plan.
Now we have Austerity 2.0

Collapse in SC has nothing to do with an aging population, its low pay and EU staff leaving, why was this allowed to happen?

Need to deal with the crisis now, other countries are doing far far better.

60% of Irish population has private health insurance, 90% of French.
20% of British.
Wake up!

YABU.

Where are you getting £47,000 from?

I am glad you are enjoying it, no one else is laughing though. Just you.

I think you'll find there were several laughing at you and mentioned it

YABU.

It IS disgraceful. It’s disgraceful that the government has let it get this far. That they continue to underfund and overburden the NHS.

Or did you mean it’s disgraceful that underpaid workers don’t just accept any crumbs they get from people who vote to give themselves pay rises and funded Christmas parties.

At the end of the day the NHS can not be fixed by any party, Wes Streeting is an admirable and honest man and has been honest about this, he makes me want vote for Labour if he ever becomes leader, but anyway this is a national problem and needs a national solution. That is what most people agree on.

We need a short term solution for now, and a medium to long term total overhaul in the future. Starting with charging for GP appointments, scrapping some functions, reducing the service to achievable levels.

The root cause of this IMO is the sense of entitlement of some so called "ill" people who expect ambulance services to their door at the sight of a drop of blood on the end of their finger. That's hyperbole BTW. Many people just take themselves off to A+E if they are walking wounded. Too many using the service who don't need it.

Secondly there is a huge lack of respect in Britain for Public Sector workers in general. Nurses, teachers, carers, council workers you name it. Dregs of the earth they are and should be at everyone's beck and call 24/7, that is what I pay my taxes for yada yada. In other countries such workers are highly respected and paid accordingly.

Thirdly the current Government don't see investment in public services as worthwhile use of taxpayer's money. Rising salaries might just impact the profits and wealth of some companies and voters.

I am not in UK, so forgive me butting in. Sometimes the view is clearer from afar. In my country (Ireland), there is absolutely no way that public sector workers as above would be treated like this. They are without fail respected by the community and rewarded as such. That is not to say that things can be in ribbons often, but the Government realises that they are a fundamental lynchpin in a caring society and will step in to offset any disturbances. Not perfect no of course not, but the difference is that Ireland values and respects teachers, nurses, carers and so on.

If you really are interested, look at the future stats and that will scare the shit out of you.

they had the future stats back in 1947/48 and ever since but diddly squat was done with those stats

2080 will be the tipping point

So you are admitting to a cabal on MN, if you are speaking for several other posters, just as we suspected.

So now we go from "Dismantle" to "managed transition"

Again, what do we do whilst years of managed transition is happening?

You only have to look at how long and how disruptive "transition" is for far less critical industries to see that reform of the NHS is a decade plus project and you don't start that with staff shortages and low morale.

Lets be a bit more positive, 10% pay offer, strikes end, free parking, raise TH for student loans, encourage more PT to go FT and then look at change.

Bring SC under NHS.

It’s the government who is harming all of us, and has been doing for 40 years.

But we can’t expect anything but hypocrisy and lies from self-serving politicians nowadays.

For those hard of thinking,Mick Lynch is nothing to do with the strike.He is head of the RMT(Train drivers union)for those even harder of thinking.🤷‍♀️