If your name happens to be Chris, and you happen to work in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at London Ambulance Waterloo Headquarters, and you also happen to live in Romford, don’t be surprised if you are receiving looks that could kill from your colleagues! The reason for this is that one particular ‘Chris from Romford, Controller, London Ambulance Service’ rang up LBC 97.3 on Monday 24th September 2012 to join in a ‘phone-in’ programme regarding outsourcing of public services to private companies.Â
We have all got opinions of course. We are all entitled to share them. We are free to share them on a radio ‘phone-in’ programme.
One proviso! Opinions are opinions: facts are facts: untruths are untruths and rubbish is rubbish!
Chris, before you decide to go on air and open your mouth to give the good people of London the benefit of your knowledge and insight, you should have first understood the principle of radio!
That principle being: One person speaks on radio – thousands of other people listen!
Chris thinks it is a good thing to outsource London Ambulance Service ‘frontline’ work to private ambulance companies.
He is entitled to that opinion. It’s the same opinion of a lot of right wing neo-liberal Coalition MPs. But just like those MPs, he has not thought the argument through.
He then went on to assert that private companies were ‘cheaper than the LAS’! How does he know? He did have the decency to go on and say that the private company staff were paid minimum wage or just above and the Union (in LAS) would not allow that for our own staff!
Now before you think that Chris can’t be all bad, that was a negative, not a positive in his opinion!
While we are on Chris’s much sought after intellectual, investigative evidence on the woes of the LAS, the health service and the Union, he also stated that the Union got in the way of staff being treated like slaves.
Well, to be honest, he didn’t use those exact words, but that is what he meant. For instance, he said that one problem within the LAS was that our staff ONLY worked a 12 hour shift! That was the fault of the Union because private ambulance staff will work for as long as they are needed!
He said private ambulance staff are more ‘flexible’ and the Union in LAS will not allow our staff to be treated like private ambulance staff!
Now again, stop thinking Chris can’t be all bad! This was also a negative, not a positive in his opinion!
You couldn’t make this up!
(No mention, of course, that it is the other way around: Private ambulance staff are treated like that because the majority have no Union organisation or representation.
No mention, of course, about the £53m funding reduction (cuts) and the loss of a potential 890 LAS posts.
No mention, of course, about the £20b funding reduction (cuts) throughout the NHS.
No mention, of course, about the Health & Social Care Bill that has opened up our health service to the private sector pack of hounds)
But the worst thing spoken by ‘Chris, Controller, from Romford’ is that he would feel safer with one of the private companies that we use than some of the NHS crews we have.
He then tried to justify that by spouting rubbish about the level of training private ambulance staff have, and get.
I have no doubt that some private companies offer excellent training (That’s the union’s lawyer calmed down!).
He finished this anti LAS, anti NHS, ignorant rant with this gem, straight out of the ‘post-it note, brainstorming, blue sky, out the box thinking, think tank brigade’:
“The future is that we are going to be having NHS staff controlling the ambulances and obviously (obviously (my italics) all the guys and girls on the road will be private companies”
Message for Chris: Over our dead bodies!
Now I don’t know who this Chris is. If he does indeed work in EOC then I expect his colleagues to point him out. Apart from anything else he has brought the Service into disrepute and insulted professional LAS ambulance staff.
If he is not a member of staff (and works for/owns a private ambulance company!) then it would be nice to get a statement from the LAS completely distancing themselves from his remarks.
To listen to the recording of ‘The Thoughts Of Chairman Chris’ then press play on the media player below. If for any reason this doesn’t load then you can Click here to download and listen.
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UNISON supports LAS staff. All staff. We support the NHS. We support the Public Sector.
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Heard that the key message at the managers conference today (Friday) was for them to reassure staff and convince them that senior management are not deserting a sinking ship. I would have thought that the managers are the ones to be reassured and convinced first!
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 SATURDAY 20th OCTOBER 2012
MARCHING FOR A FUTURE THAT WORKS
JOIN US!
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary
