SAS Dispute (11/01/12)
If the letters page in The Herald newspaper is anything to go by - the public have now woken up to the fact that the long running dispute in the Scottish Ambulance Service - over 'rest breaks' - is a complete disgrace.
Here are two letters published by The Herald the other day - which speak for themselves.
No sympathy for ambulance staff
With regards to the current dispute between ambulance crews and the Scottish Ambulance Service, it beggars belief that this situation has arisen.
I am a former police officer who worked first with Dunbartonshire, then Strathclyde and latterly Cumbria Constabulary. The main emergency services are the police, fire and rescue and ambulances, which means they are employed to respond to emergencies.
If, as a police officer, I was made aware of an emergency and didn't respond, at the very least I would have expected to be disciplined. Besides, I could not have lived with myself if I had ignored an emergency which resulted in someone being seriously injured or dying. There were many occasions during my time as a police officer that I completed a full shift without so much as a cup of tea, and not always as a result of emergencies.
How on earth was an agreement reached whereby ambulance crews do not have to leave their break to attend emergencies? If you want a job with regular breaks, get an office job.
The worst aspect is that the proposal recently offered to the crews was rejected. In the times of financial hardship they should not have been offered this when plenty of other people are losing their jobs or are taking pay cuts in real terms. I am sure conditions within the Scottish Ambulance Service are not perfect, but the same applies to other emergency services.
Crews working for emergency services are paid to respond to emergencies. These ambulance staff should be ashamed of themselves.
Brian Smith,
Carlisle.
I am dismayed and disappointed at the rejection by ambulance service unions of the generous offer of a lump sum of £1500 plus £100 every time a rest break for staff is interrupted.
I wonder how ambulance personnel would feel if, in the middle of an eight-hour life-saving operation, the surgeon downed his scalpel and left with his theatre team for a coffee?
Or if the house of an ambulance crew member was blazing, and the firefighters turned off their hoses to drink a cup of tea?
Lesley Mackiggan,
Glasgow.
Here are two letters published by The Herald the other day - which speak for themselves.
No sympathy for ambulance staff
With regards to the current dispute between ambulance crews and the Scottish Ambulance Service, it beggars belief that this situation has arisen.
I am a former police officer who worked first with Dunbartonshire, then Strathclyde and latterly Cumbria Constabulary. The main emergency services are the police, fire and rescue and ambulances, which means they are employed to respond to emergencies.
If, as a police officer, I was made aware of an emergency and didn't respond, at the very least I would have expected to be disciplined. Besides, I could not have lived with myself if I had ignored an emergency which resulted in someone being seriously injured or dying. There were many occasions during my time as a police officer that I completed a full shift without so much as a cup of tea, and not always as a result of emergencies.
How on earth was an agreement reached whereby ambulance crews do not have to leave their break to attend emergencies? If you want a job with regular breaks, get an office job.
The worst aspect is that the proposal recently offered to the crews was rejected. In the times of financial hardship they should not have been offered this when plenty of other people are losing their jobs or are taking pay cuts in real terms. I am sure conditions within the Scottish Ambulance Service are not perfect, but the same applies to other emergency services.
Crews working for emergency services are paid to respond to emergencies. These ambulance staff should be ashamed of themselves.
Brian Smith,
Carlisle.
I am dismayed and disappointed at the rejection by ambulance service unions of the generous offer of a lump sum of £1500 plus £100 every time a rest break for staff is interrupted.
I wonder how ambulance personnel would feel if, in the middle of an eight-hour life-saving operation, the surgeon downed his scalpel and left with his theatre team for a coffee?
Or if the house of an ambulance crew member was blazing, and the firefighters turned off their hoses to drink a cup of tea?
Lesley Mackiggan,
Glasgow.
