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

Ireland is a tiny, tiny island of 5 million!!

Hardly comparable in any shape or form

It starts with an honest discussion with staff at all levels.

A close look at all posts, from cleaning crew, nursing staff and all support staff. Each appraised based on an agreed criteria (all staff, unions included). Honest whittling away of jobs that are not good value for money, add nothing to teh safety of staff and patients.

We did something similar during a restructuring back in the 90s. All detailed what we actually did during any given day; made out own appraisals of what we could add or drop from the role and handed it over to management consultants who restructured the company. Added 6 years of profitable trading to the company. German politics and their Social Contract eventually close it.

There are many people within any organisation who are perfectly capable of identifying the 'nice to have but not essential' services. There just needs to be the will, and initial funding, to carry through any changes.

The NHS being unwieldy is not an excuse to just leave it to crumble slowly, adding the odd sticking plaster.

At the end of the day the NHS can not be fixed by any party

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.

If you're saying the NHS can not be fixed, then suggesting some solutions, aren't you suggesting that the government who have been in power for the last 12 years should have implemented some of those solutions instead of leading us to the situation we are in now where people are dying unnecessarily, the elderly lying on the floor in gardens overnight waiting for ambulances and people unable to be seen in A&E? And I'm talking about days where there aren't strikes.

The government are to blame for that, yes?

if you are speaking for several other posters, just as we suspected.

I can read the post others posts, I don't need to speak for others

I think you'll find there were several laughing at you and mentioned it there were several posts calling you out on your Mike Lynch statements, go back and read them there are many to choose from

They are all in cahoots with each other

YABU paramedics don't make 47k and have been forced into this position, get your head out your arse.

@Venetiaparties - you do realise the answer to your mathematical question is, nobody cares so much that they will tolerate being shat on forever. One could ask, if people care so much, or recognise the need for high quality care, why they don’t care for their own elderly relatives, or become paramedics or nurses themselves? Maybe something to do with the fact that none of us want to be slaves to caring, we expect more choices and rewards for the work, the capacity to have a life outside of our responsibilities, to have respite to recuperate from the colossal stress involved, not just a life of duty and obligation to employers who don’t appear to give a flying fuck about the quality of life of those doing the work, or even their ability to actually do the job, rather than just be overseers of painful, slow deaths.

It doesn't matter how we do it, we need a complete overhaul.

You sound like a government drone, OP.

Honestly though, how fucking dare you? Sitting behind your keyboard blethering on about strikes. Nice and warm are you? Comfortable and full? So many people who work in the medical professions are not. You'd have to be completely dense not to know that.

I hope MNHQ don't delete your thread. I haven't read many replies but even the first page's worth have handed you your arse.

To any NHS workers reading... strike; you're supported. There's no other way of getting this shitshow of a government to listen. Do it hard, do it once. I know that some have jumped off the picket lines to tend to 'life and limb'; not an easy decision but just shows the calibre of these staff that our puffed up government see fit to ignore.

YABU... more than you know.

I can't see any other post referring to laughing to be fair. Can you? And certainly not 'several'

It is a lie isn't Ivy, like the idea that people somehow won't have heart attacks today and go into labour and get burnt.

Why are you not upset that the government has been choosing this every day for the past 12 years?

Why are you upset with the ambulance service who are trying to fix it?

They are all in cahoots with each other

you mean many workers are getting fed up with their conditions being awful and vote to strike at the same time. They can't strike without a majority vote by their members

And you're angry at the government for not having done anything about it for the last 12 years?

And you think killing people will help?
Perhaps read beyond the first page next time.

I have health cover but it covers sweet nothing in reality in the UK.
It covers diagnosis for example referral to a consultant and then tests/CT/MRI etc but once diagnosed that condition is never covered and the NHS has to bear the burden of chronic conditions.
If this were the US and I had reasonable cover then chronic conditions would be covered.
The issue I see with health insurance model moving into the UK is for those of us with pre-existing conditions - diabetes, cancer, heart issues, autoimmune disease. No insurer would rightly want to offer cover - so what happens then - does all treatment just stop?

I sense superiority in your response, now forgive me if I am wrong.

There is something called proportionality. What works for a population of 5 million can be translated to a population of 65 million as well. It is called fair distribution of taxation and investment in public services.

Not every country with a highly respected public sector/health service is the same size as Britain. They use their resources wisely and fairly to look after the taxpaying citizen.

I am sorry to say it, but your response smacks of the typical British exceptionalism that has caused Brexit and other devasting impacts on your society.

Most people are good and kind. But there is a tipping point, and it is being reached right now in Britain.

If you are in a union, can also vote to strike. If it goes through, you strike and lose pay. If you aren’t in a union, join one. To be honest, the fact you haven’t been given a pay rise is neither here nor there as you could already be earning over £45,000 pa in your private sector job. We know that the majority of nurses and paramedics are not.

If we are feeling the impact of the strikes, that tells me the job should be bloody well paid. They aren’t and their conditions are deteriorating by the day. This affects us, the service users. Whilst I support anyone’s right to strike, it is very, very clear that some have more impact.

etiaparties. people were having heart attacks last week and going into labour but ambulances weren't turning up

but Mike Lynch still has nothing to do with the NHS unions, several people told you and kept telling you

You are showing your total ignorance, of course it matters how or even if its done, its the very essence of the problem.

I LOVE this guy. Says it how it is.

I haven't got heath cover but would pay for stuff like hip and knee replacement, in fact I have a couple of what looks like skin cancers, not melanoma so non urgent but will go privately with them probably as it is difficult to see a normal GP. A lot of us are having to pay for things now so the NHS is not serving us well, I doubt that will change anytime soon.

People who can afford health insurance have it from an early age (there are cheaper plans for younger people and some employers will subsidise).
If you join as an older person with a pre-existing health condition it’s more expensive. The idea is that the healthy young will subsidise other people, not just wait to pay when they become old or chronically ill themselves.
Treatment and procedures are all covered - not just diagnostics. I’m not sure why that’s not the case with you.
Although insurance is private the industry is regulated by the state as it is very much in the state’s interest to have 60% or 90% of the population helping with costs.
Opponents say it’s not fair to have a two-tier health system with “the rich” on top. It’s true that those with health insurance get seen and treated more quickly. But there is no difference in the actual treatment which is highly regulated by the international medical community. And by taking themselves off the public waiting lists “the rich” very much subsidise those who cannot pay.

YABVVU
I have personal experience of my Mum almost dying because she was left in A&E for 9 hours waiting to be seen with what transpired to be a bowel obstruction.
But do I support the striking nurses and ambulance workers - 100% yes, because their current conditions are untenable.
Direct your anger to this corrupt shitshow of a government.
Unfortunately though I fear that the govt know exactly what the strikes will do to public opinion of healthcare workers - and it plays perfectly into their plans of privatisation by stealth. Tory politicians have so many murky (and overt) connections to the private companies waiting in the wings that it's sickening.
If people think a private system will serve us better then they are unbelievably naive (and I speak as a Drs wife who would benefit financially from it). When you have to hand over your credit card to get your dying child seen you might look back on what we had with a different viewpoint and wish you'd supported the NHS.

Venetiaparties you're extremely ignorant and not really worth responding to but I've read and understood beyond social media what has been going on for years.

Letting people die is at the hands of the government. Now wrap your tiny, tiny mind around that and stop trying to lecture others; you sound utterly ridiculous.