{"id":1060,"date":"2012-09-28T16:12:56","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T15:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsb.lasunison.com\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2012-10-01T11:03:35","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T10:03:35","slug":"my-name-is-chris-and-i-spout-rubbish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/?p=1060","title":{"rendered":"“My Name Is Chris And I Spout Rubbish!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If your name\u00c2\u00a0happens to be\u00c2\u00a0Chris, 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!\u00c2\u00a0The reason for this is that one particular ‘Chris from Romford,<\/em> Controller, London Ambulance Service’<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0rang up LBC 97.3 on Monday 24th September 2012 to join in\u00c2\u00a0a ‘phone-in’ programme\u00c2\u00a0regarding outsourcing of public services to\u00c2\u00a0private companies.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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. <\/strong><\/p>\n

One proviso! Opinions are opinions: facts are facts: untruths are untruths and rubbish is rubbish!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris, before you decide to go on air and open your mouth to\u00c2\u00a0give the good people of London the benefit of your knowledge and insight, you should have first\u00c2\u00a0understood the principle of radio!<\/strong><\/p>\n

That principle being: One person speaks on radio – thousands of other people listen!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris thinks it is a good thing to outsource\u00c2\u00a0London Ambulance Service\u00c2\u00a0‘frontline’ work to private ambulance companies. <\/strong><\/p>\n

He is entitled to that\u00c2\u00a0opinion. It’s the same opinion of a lot of\u00c2\u00a0right wing\u00c2\u00a0neo-liberal\u00c2\u00a0Coalition MPs. But just\u00c2\u00a0like those MPs, he has not thought the argument through.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Now before you think that\u00c2\u00a0Chris can’t be all bad, that was a negative, not a positive in his opinion!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, to be honest, he didn’t use those exact\u00c2\u00a0words, but that is what he meant. For instance, he said that one problem\u00c2\u00a0within the LAS was that our staff ONLY worked a\u00c2\u00a012 hour shift! That was the fault of the Union because private ambulance staff will work for as long as they are needed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said private ambulance staff are more ‘flexible’ and the Union in LAS will not allow our\u00c2\u00a0staff to be treated like private ambulance\u00c2\u00a0staff! <\/strong><\/p>\n

Now again, stop thinking\u00c2\u00a0Chris can’t be all bad! This was also\u00c2\u00a0a negative, not\u00c2\u00a0a positive in his opinion!<\/strong><\/p>\n

You couldn’t make this up!<\/strong><\/p>\n

(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.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

No mention, of course, about the \u00c2\u00a353m funding reduction (cuts)\u00c2\u00a0and the loss of a potential 890 LAS posts.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

No mention, of course, about the \u00c2\u00a320b funding reduction (cuts) throughout the NHS.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

No mention, of course, about the Health & Social Care Bill that has opened up our health service to the private sector pack of hounds)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But the worst thing spoken by ‘Chris, Controller, from Romford’<\/em> is that he would feel safer with one of the private companies that we use than some of the NHS crews we have.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He then tried to justify that by spouting rubbish\u00c2\u00a0about the level of training private ambulance staff have, and get.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have no doubt that some private companies offer excellent training (That’s the union’s lawyer calmed down!).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00c2\u00a0thinking,\u00c2\u00a0think tank\u00c2\u00a0brigade’: <\/strong><\/p>\n

“The future is that we are going to be having NHS staff controlling the ambulances and obviously (obviously<\/em> (my italics) all the guys and girls on the road will be private companies”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Message for Chris: Over our dead bodies!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If he is not a member of staff (and works for\/owns a private ambulance company!) then it would be nice to get\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0statement from the LAS completely distancing themselves from\u00c2\u00a0his remarks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To listen to the recording of ‘The Thoughts Of Chairman Chris’ then press play on\u00c2\u00a0the media player below. If for any reason this doesn’t load then you can\u00c2\u00a0Click here to download and\u00c2\u00a0listen<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[cincopa A0NAB_aC4eV2]<\/p>\n

UNISON supports LAS staff. All staff. We support the NHS. We support the Public Sector. <\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

Heard that the key message at the managers conference today (Friday) was for them\u00c2\u00a0to 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!<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0SATURDAY 20th OCTOBER 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

MARCHING FOR A FUTURE THAT WORKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

JOIN US!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eric Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Branch Secretary<\/strong><\/p>\n

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If your name\u00c2\u00a0happens to be\u00c2\u00a0Chris, 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsblog.lasunison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}