I feel sorry for our Senior Management…. No, please, don’t send me abusive emails because of that statement. My in-box is full already! Let me explain and finish what I was going to say!
I feel sorry for our Senior Management because they have the job of selling London Ambulance staff, and the public, a Coalition Government cut dressed up as an improvement!
Talk about pulling rabbits out of a hat!
To anyone with common-sense, and a modicum of economic understanding, to be told that a substantial cut in financial resources will lead to a life changing improvement in a public service, well, they would think the person telling them that was mad!
But that’s exactly what the Coalition Government is telling us. In fact they go further. They try to convince us that it is us who are mad. We are the people who are mad because we don’t believe their economic dogma and mantras.
We are mad and too stupid to understand that a Cabinet of millionaires must know what is better for us than we do ourselves.Â
They have turned everything upside down. Welfare is bad – Food-banks are good. Spare rooms are bad – Mansions are good. Public Services are bad – Private Services are good. Investment is bad – Profit is good. More is bad – Less is good.
The changes going on in the Country, in the NHS and yes, even in the LAS, are all linked to the strategy of social Shock and Awe! Lots of major changes, all at once, across wide areas, relentlessly.
Our Ambulance Service, along with other Services, has had money taken away from it.Â
That is a cut! Dress it up as you will!
When is a cut not a cut? When it is dressed up as an efficiency saving! London obviously has too many ambulance staff. Too many staff working for the London Ambulance Service.
That is the poisoned logic of the Coalition Government.
Sadly, some people believe it. Some people in the Country, in the NHS and, worst of all, in the London Ambulance Service.
Not everyone believes it though, thank goodness.  The majority of staff do not believe it. I guarantee the majority of Managers do not believe it either. Not all Senior Managers will believe it and there are people on the Trust Board who will not believe it. Carrying out an instruction is not the same as believing in it.
And that’s why I feel sorry for our Senior Management. They have their job to do.
They have to sell to London Ambulance staff, and the public, a Coalition Government cut dressed up as an improvement.
Now where’s that rabbit gone!
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary
