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

They are not allowed to strike in protest of those things. Though better pay and conditions would lead to better staff recruitment and retention. If this happened across the NHS, there would be less backlogs and ambulances queuing. Many of the calls you speak of are going unanswered anyway due to the backlogs.

Wards are so short staffed nurses are risking their pins they had to train and pay ongoing fees for on every shift. The staff in these ‘caring professions’ are risking their liberty as they can face criminal charges due to gross negligence. They still turn up and work under these conditions. I fully support their right to strike and see no reason for you to admonish them for not being caring.

You can not be sacked for striking as long as the law governing strikes is followed. This means you can strike if you have a reason to.

Would you turn up and care for patients knowing you could face losing your career and a prison sentence? That is the choice our caring professions are making each day.

I don’t work for the NHS or have family working for the NHS. Though I will always be thankful to them for saving my little girl’s life at the end of a very busy shift where lack of staff meant no breaks. Thirteen hours with no breaks.

YABU. They have tried a lot of other approaches first.
It’s not only about pay, it’s also about working conditions.
Blame the government, who have created this situation deliberately.
The ambulance delays are already killing people and the government does nothing.

It's not down to you to decide if working conditions are acceptable for ambulance staff, only they can decide that. I think you are being so naive to the amount of stress paramedics are under.

Are the Xmas decorations up in Matthew Parker Street?

YABU.

YABU

It's not just about pay. Please do some research.

They may have employed 10k but this is massively eclipsed by the number leaving so we are still massively down, there are around 60k vacancies which is crazy. The government has also been unethical imo and have recruited well above the agreed numbers of staff from developing countries which then leaves them short. All to avoid paying nurses a fair wage, sad isn't it.

They could strike in April and May when there is less pressure AND still cover cat 1 and cat 2 call outs.

People are going to DIE today - yes die, and they could have otherwise been saved had the unions at least covered the statutory minimum of life threatening call outs.

I can't believe anyone with a conscience and any ethics and morals whatsoever could support such a terrible terrible thing.

The rest of the country on the whole do NOT support ANY of these strikes with the exception of the nurses.

YABU

Your figures (and yes, many of those in the media) are at best misleading. Listen to what the individuals involved are saying, not just what this corrupt, inept government want you to hear. The state the have run our health services (and many others) into is criminal and continues to cause much more harm than strikes ever will, something needs to change.

£47k????? I fucking wish it was this much. My DH was a time served paramedic.

I say 'was' because he has left the ambulance service as he could earn more as a HGV driver.

He was on £30k. It was just the money that made him leave. It was the relentlessness of it all. 12 hour shifts that would turn into 15 regularly. No break until 11 hours into the shift.

The suicide rate within the ambulance service is appalling.

It doesn't matter what you are striking for.

You don't allow people to die to make your point.

YABVVU

People don’t enjoy striking. They cannot afford to live and the NHS has been run into the ground by successive governments.

There is a thread on here about an elderly woman with a probable broken hip or pelvis who has been in agony for a couple of days with no ambulance. That was BEFORE the strike.

The service has fallen apart. Even a few years ago, my DH with a head injury after an accident couldn’t get an ambulance in central London. A passing paramedic stopped and took him to hospital.

People are dying because of a shit service, not the strikers.

"You don't allow people to die to make your point."

IFS graph showing average annual spending on healthcare (based on 2019/20 prices).

It is already happening and has been for some time as the system is at breaking point. Hence the strikes.

earlier this year my child suffered internal bleeding and we needed an ambulance to take her from one hospital to another. It took nearly 2 hours just to do that transfer. I dread to think what is happening for call outs.

Maybe a year or so ago, I wouldn't have been that bothered by the NHS strikes, because I literally never had a reason to use their services thanks to the sheer luck of good health. However, seeing how the paramedics responded taking us to the second hospital, and how fucking overworked the nurses were when we were in hospital for 8 days - the healthcare staff deserve every single penny.

Its easy to not really care about their working conditions until you see it in action.

Leaving people to die? So now paramedics are akin to murderers?

Wtf am I reading on this thread?

Typo. It WASNT just the money..

YABU. It's desperately sad we're in this state. Perhaps read further into why they are striking. It's not just money. Yes, I'll be sad and angry if my elderly family members need an ambulance today, but I support them.

The fact we are are being warned not to call 999 unless it's a life threatening emergency is, quite frankly, ridiculous. That's all the number should be used for.

Agreed.

The NHS has collapsed and we need a new model, clearly, we can not carry on as we are.,

I do find it frustrating that as an A&E nurse I was banned from striking as I work in a critical service but my ambulance colleagues can strike. I wish them every success today

YANBU, support for the strikes will change, as patients die as a direct result. I fully agree Gov are at fault here, but I do not agree with the strikes.

I would respect the strike if it wasn't about pay. If it was about the state of the nhs, fair enough.

But it is about pay, well, wouldn't we all want more pay

They are happy to leave people die for a pay rise

I can't respect that, it's awful

Venetiaparties please read this thread and many others to get the consensus of feeling. People are fed up of being screwed over. The strikes have to have impact to be meaningful. The government should come to the table and offer more pay and a journey to better conditions to avoid strikes. People are at burnout and something has to change. The system is unsustainable.

I doubt it will be any different to the 'normal' service

From the same article you read OP. Funny how you missed it. 🤔

Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB Union... said earlier that ambulance staff were tired of spending all day outside a hospital with a patient because of delays in handing over patients to A&E. They often did not know whether patients would "still be alive" when they reached them after a callout.

"We've been raising these issues for years and [have] been ignored," she added.