HELP!
London Ambulance Staff are stuck in a vacuum!
Do you remember those advertisements on the back of magazines, featuring pictures of glum looking people staring vacantly into space with the strapline underneath asking “Are you stuck in a rut, not knowing where to go, what’s going to happen, what to do?”
Well, throw away the magazine! You don’t need it. Just take a walk around the London Ambulance Service at present, and the advert comes to life!
Glum people confused with what is happening to their Service. Not knowing where it is heading, not knowing what to do, not knowing where to go! Clinging on to the hope that things will get better.
Things getting better? Some hope at this rate.
Worse than that of course, is the glum people, stuck in a rut, who do know where to go!
These staff members are taking the first train out of Lasville and heading to where they think they will be more appreciated, more welcomed, more rewarded, more happy, less busy, less stressed, less ‘Time for Changed’!
Things are so bad that even the Private Ambulance Sector is more appealing to our staff. As the Chuckle Brothers would say – Oh dear, Oh dear!
Now, the grass may look greener on the other side, time will tell, but the truth of the matter is that more staff would go, if only they could.
Something has to happen! Quickly!
To misuse ex Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s quote (no, not the ‘You’ve never had it so good’ one!) but the ‘Wind of Change’ one! ‘The wind of change is blowing through this continent’.
He was talking about Africa in 1960, and although the context is completely different of course, a Wind of Change needs to blow through the London Ambulance Service. And fast!
A Wind of Change, not A Time for Change!
Of course it is a worry when a lot of good staff leave, particularly staff who have had a lot of investment in training etc, but let’s also think about, and give support to, the staff that haven’t left, and are sticking with the London Ambulance Service.
We are the ambulance service that looks after the Capital City! For goodness sake, if we can’t recruit people, retain people, and properly reward people based on that coveted of all brands, then……will the last person out please switch off the blue light!
We are not a failing Service. We are a falling Service! There is a difference.
Let us not fall asleep however as other Services lure our staff away.
UNISON and Senior Management know what we both want. We have been talking about it over a long period of time. It will cost money, but it is money that other Services outside London seem to be able to get their hands on, and, what is more frustrating, money that they are using to seduce our staff to jump over the hedge into their open arms and greener pasture.
I know our management don’t hold the purse strings. I know that they are trying to convince Commissioners to listen and to understand the problems we have with staff retention and recruitment.
I am not criticising their efforts but I am warning of failure.
We have a case for more investment. We have a case for more staff. We have a case for all staff to feel wanted, rewarded and secure.
The longer Commissioners dither, the deeper the hole. The deeper the hole, the further our Service falls. The further our Service falls, the more our staff suffer. The more our staff suffer, the more staff jump ship. The more staff jump ship, the faster HMS LAS sinks. The faster HMS LAS sinks…….you get the picture!
Message to LAS Senior Management: Let us be bold! Together!
Let us not just ask for more money, Let us insist on it! We know what should happen!
- All Paramedics should be in Band 6.
- Re-think the role of the Senior Paramedic.
- Secure the future of Technicians.
- Make it easier, and affordable, for our own staff to study to become Paramedics.
- Make it financially attractive for staff to stay with LAS.
- Create a ‘London’ package for all our staff to be a unique benefit working for LAS.
This will be a real wind of change that will blow through our Service and put us back on course as the Capital Flagship of Ambulance Services.
The time for talk is over. The LAS revolution starts. Staff want it. Londoners want it.
This change shouldn’t be put off any longer. Winter is coming. Let us bring good news.
Or we could just let gloomy people float around in a vacuum and risk the biggest disconnect between the Service, staff and their Union in our history.
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Information on all issues can be found elsewhere on our website.
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If you are reading this, work for the London Ambulance Service or are eligible to join, and are not yet a member of UNISON Join Today!
We are stronger together.
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary.
