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

the bankers in this country are keeping the country afloat in payment of taxes, you do know that right?

How much did it cost to bail the banks out?

People who work in the public sector also pay taxes.

A 65 year old friend phoned me up yesterday afternoon, all in a tizz. She'd been out for the day, and stupidly left her phone turned off. During that time her 70 year old husband, with a pacemaker, had a funny turn at home. He tried to call an ambulance, was told it was a 5 hour wait, so a neighbour drove him to A&E. Both he, and my friend have tested +ve for covid, and he's been kept in for observation.

Both have worked all their lives. And the time they need an ambulance, they can't get one, and have to rely on the goodness of a neighbour, who now also possibly has covid for christmas!

I understand why they are striking, but I can't support it. Sorry.

'How many times. Just because there are jobs that are worse paid doesn't mean that people shouldn't strike for better pay.'

It does! It is perspective. It is life in the real world.

Why on earth should ambulance drivers get more pay, why strike and leave vulnerable people distressed. It is just unacceptable and despicable. They need to get their arses to work.

Zingally - they weren't on strike yesterday. That is the state of the service now.

1 in 6 patients in England had to wait at least an hour to be passed over to A&E from an ambulance. Target 15 mins. Heart & stroke patients waiting 48mins average last month. Target 18 min.

4200 hours a day wasted outside hospitals. Equivalent to 176 vehicles out of action.

https://twitter.com/lewisgoodall/status/1605542870064267270?s=46&t=-ffoqjSyx6xJJtdXALMIg

Ambulance staff* sorry I know they do more than drive ambulances, they also adminster first aid and medical care.

YABU

But that was yesterday afternoon - BEFORE THE STRIKE - yes? So what is your point?!?

It’s crazy to think lowering tax receipts from high revenue sectors is the answer. Some posts sound as if getting rid of all higher tax payers is the answer. It’s not. It’s a sure way into even greater lack of funds.

They wouldn't have got one any quicker on any other day in the last few months. It is a myth that the delays are caused by the strikes.

Oh well, should have thought about that before keeping the tories in power for 12 years.

Reap what you sow and what not.

Ambulance workers weren't striking yesterday afternoon, so if your friend couldn't get an ambulance when they needed one, that means that the ambulance service is in a pretty dire state, right?

How will that improve if the workers don't take a stand?

As the strikes weren't happening yesterday, your post illustrates why the strikes are actually necessary.

Because people who strike for better conditions are fighting for their conditions but also bringing up the lowest common denominator so conditions improve for everyone. Their working conditions are our care conditions. Until people stop going “we’ll it’s shot for me too so it should be shit for everyone “ then nothing is going to get better. Public sector staff are treated like they should be happy to be treated like the dirt on other peoples shoes and we’ve all had enough.

No one, not even Tory voters voted for this shit storm. You cannot blame Tory voters for this.

'1 in 6 patients in England had to wait at least an hour to be passed over to A&E from an ambulance. Target 15 mins. Heart & stroke patients waiting 48mins average last month. Target 18 min.'

Yes but why would ambulance staff strike about this? The issue is the disorganisation of social care discharge at other end. Ambulance staff wait chatting with their patients it isn’t as if they get double the caseload.

Pay them a living wage FFS it’s the very very least they deserve.

They aren't going around stabbing people. They are just not doing their jobs for a couple of days. Why is that worse than everyone just leaving their job and therefore not doing it for ever so there is no ambulance service at all?

No one, not even Tory voters voted for this shit storm. You cannot blame Tory voters for this.

What on earth did you think you were voting for then, regarding the public sector? From a Tory government?

YABU

Well I would have chosen a different approach to the pandemic and Labour / left would have hammered private sector more. All those demands. Not good

A living wage. Google band 5 and 6 nhs they certainly get a 'living wage'. Tbh they'd be band 4s if it was up to me.

Since when does a Tesco worker need to save lives as part of their job role? Since when does a Tesco worker require a degree to do their job?
Good grief.

Three years ago we were all out on our doorsteps clapping for these people, thankful that they were willing to go out and risk their lives in a pandemic. At that time we really didn't know how severe Covid was, there were no effective treatments, no vaccines, and we didn't know what the lasting consequences of infection would be. I for one was really quite scared, for my own health and my family's, and I wasn't putting myself in danger everyday at work. I've asked those that I know how it felt, and they have told me that they were terrified, but they did what they had to do. I thought, whilst Boris and Carrie were clapping along with us, that it was a turning point, that the Tories would finally value the NHS. Boy was I mistaken! The Tories have just well and truly shat on every one of those people that they clapped. If they have long Covid and can no longer work they're on Universal Credit when the sick pay runs out. Doesn't matter if they can no longer pay their mortgage, if they can't pay their bills, that's tough titties, and their own fault for choosing to be a nurse/paramedic/care worker rather than work in an office, or as an MP. Given that many likely caught Covid at work, it should be an occupational disease, but it's not, so they're just thrown on the scrap heap. And this is how we thank those who were caring for Covid patients in the hight of the pandemic? What the Tories have done to the NHS is absolutely shameful, I'm not surprised everyone working within it is striking. And of course they need a pay rise, how are we going to make sure that NHS is adequately staffed without one? Noone wants to work in the NHS atm, so Trusts spend millions on agency staff to try and plug gaps. Why not just give NHS employees a decent salary instead? But then of course there'd be less profit for private agencies, so the Tories are unlikely to do that. Can't have their paymasters and friends out of pocket. The right wing press have really done a number on you if you think it's NHS staff who are to blame for the collapse of our health service. What else can they do but strike? They're working in a health service that's been allowed to deteriorate to the point where they can no longer provide safe care, they can't recruit enough staff, and those that are in it are leaving. How else should they protest this, in a way where the government will actually listen? Staff withing the NHS have been warning of this for years, that eventually our health service will cease to function. Now we're at that point, don't shoot the messenger.

Apparently, the banks were too big to fail, but the NHS is not. As a society, we have continuously rewarded those who gamble with other people’s security (not their own, because they have been exempted from the consequences of their own risk-taking), and penalised everyone else, but especially those who do anything that is actually necessary for the functioning of a civilised society. The failings all come directly from the top. And the unfortunate consequence of such unbridled, unhidden self-centredness from those who govern us and those who pull their strings is the breakdown of an entire system and consequent chaos. Revolutions and chaos are always caused by corruption and ineptitude at the top of society, never from the adequately catered for masses.