{"id":7041,"date":"2015-12-10T12:08:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T12:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7041"},"modified":"2015-12-10T12:08:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T12:08:56","slug":"ambulance-crisis-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7041","title":{"rendered":"Ambulance crisis looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The number of paramedics and other ambulance staff leaving the NHS has nearly doubled in four years with thousands more planning to quit imminently.<\/p>\n

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Poor working conditions and low pay are blamed for the mass exodus with research revealing more than 1,500 paramedics left the ambulance service last year compared with 845 between 2010 and 2011.<\/p>\n

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Additional findings \u00e2\u20ac\u201c also carried out in a separate survey of more than 3,000 ambulance staff by Unite, Unison and the GMB unions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c reveal three quarters of paramedics are considering walking away.<\/p>\n

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Nearly 95 per cent believe their pay does not adequately reflect their responsibilities. A paramedic’s starting salary is \u00c2\u014121,692 annually. The full wage of \u00c2\u014128,180 is only paid after seven years.<\/p>\n

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The unions plan to raise these \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and other issues around recruitment, retention and staff bonuses \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the NHS pay review body session next week.<\/p>\n

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Catastrophic strike<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The three unions, who together represent more than 20,000 ambulance workers, are calling on the Government to review salaries or face the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcatastrophe\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of strike action.<\/p>\n

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They say the low morale in the service could trigger a crisis in the NHS unless the government acts, especially as one in every ten paramedic jobs remains vacant.<\/p>\n

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Sinking into crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJeremy Hunt has been ducking and diving while England\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ambulance service has been allowed to sink into crisis,” Unite head of health Barrie Brown said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHardworking ambulance staff and paramedics are voting with their feet and leaving the service. Their pay and conditions don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reflect the strenuous demands of the job.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe London ambulance service is already in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098special measures\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and spending thousands of pounds recruiting paramedics from as far away as Australia and New Zealand.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unison head of health Christina McAnea noted, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bParamedics are doing more than ever, and being asked to deal with a growing range of medical emergencies.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut these skills and responsibilities haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been recognised by employers or the government. Ambulance trusts say they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t got the cash but the offer last January was from Jeremy Hunt.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo trade unions will be calling on him to make sure the government keeps their side of the agreement.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe NHS will rely on its ambulance services as A&E units struggle to cope with winter pressures,” she added. “If the government doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take action, then this crisis could turn into a catastrophe.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of paramedics and other ambulance staff leaving the NHS has nearly doubled in four years with thousands more planning to quit imminently.   Poor working conditions and low pay are blamed for the mass exodus with research revealing more than 1,500 paramedics left the ambulance service last year compared with 845 between 2010 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[161,408,96,29,44],"wps_subtitle":"NHS facing 'catastrophe' as paramedics quit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7041"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7049,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041\/revisions\/7049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}