Secret proposals challenged

As the Tory-led government continues in its attack on the NHS, denying its staff the one per cent pay rise recommended by the health service’s own pay review board, it has further considered proposals in secret to extend ambulance wait times.

 
When health secretary Jeremy Hunt was brought before the House of Commons last Thursday (December 19) to answer questions about A & E and ambulance service plans for the winter, Hunt made no mention at all of the fact that he’d just signed off on proposals to delay ambulance dispatch times beginning in the first week of the new year.

 
The plans, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, would see some patients with potentially life-threatening conditions having to wait for an ambulance twice as long. By redefining which patients are suffering serious conditions and which are not, these patients would have to wait 18 minutes instead of the 9 minutes under current targets.

 
Unite head of health Rachael Maskell argued that the changes proposed beyond the purview of public scrutiny were extremely worrying without the oversight of clinical evidence for such changes.

 
“What they are doing is highly dangerous,” Maskell said. “Instead of admitting that there is a serious problem in ambulance and emergency care and putting solutions in place.”

 
Maskell noted that the proposed changes would not ease a health service stretched to breaking point since the sources of increased pressure are not being addressed – namely , cuts in social care and other parts of the NHS, as well as fragmentation and privatisation of services.

 
After the proposals were leaked to a furious public backlash, the department of health was forced to backtrack, announcing that delays to ambulance dispatch times would not be introduced during the first week of January, but it remained vague about any future changes.

 
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham condemned the government’s secrecy in its bid to lengthen ambulance wait times for some patients.

 
Burnham accused the health secretary of misleading the public.

 
“It is outrageous that he decided to keep MPs and the public in the dark about a decision he had already taken and on which will have far-reaching implications across the NHS,” he said.

 
As health staff across the nation gear up for further strike action on January 29 and February 24, seeking a decent pay rise, London Ambulance Service (LAS) last week put out a call for help from paramedic teams from the rest of the country after sharply increased demand following its busiest ever week last week.

 
The strain on the service in London has been further compounded by hundreds of vacancies as the LAS struggles to recruit people, pointing to low staff morale and poor pay and working conditions, as UNITElive has reported previously.