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NonBeliever14 wrote: »

CrackCrack30 Force Majeure, Parental, Carers and many other forms of leave are not counted as "sick leave". However, they do in many cases exacerbate the issue of shift dropping as Force Majeure is as short notice as sick leave and an increasing number of people want to take parental leave in single days.

Sick leave is counted in hours but taken as Calendar days. In other words, the employee get the benefit of taking one and a half days off sick but it is only counted as one day (because of 12 hour shift). However, up until overtime rates were changed, NAS had to spend the equivalent of 3 days pay (1.5 x 2 T overtime) to cover it if on overtime. In relation to the 10.7%, the 12 hours sick as 1 calendar day obviously pushes it up rather than a normal 5 day worker whose calendar day would be 7.8 hours (39 hours / 5 days).

I don't agree with your second point on ORVs. The business and operational case as well as road traffic and H&S considerations arising from Officers using their own cars to respond has demonstrated that it is cheaper to do it this way than pay Officers travelling expenses (like the rest of the public sector) to use their own cars. The HSE does not pay road tax as State vehicles are exempt, purchase prices are cheaper (they obviously don't pay showroom prices when buying in bulk) and pay less for fuel. They also dont have to pay car insurance as they are covered by the State Claims Agency in the event of a claim. There is then the intangible service benefit of having access to Officers whom are not paid to be available. You might call it a quid pro quo arrangement. My understanding is the the Revenue Commissioners were asked to review the BIK rules and are all kosher as well. Have a read of the link above or do an FOI.

Regarding the Prime Time programme, they forgot to leave out that the poor individual driving from Donegal to Dublin to work was assigned to that role and did not receive any extra money or expenses. He travels at least 7 hours round trip as well as a days work and contactable en route and at night for NO extra pay. I can see a big queue for that "junket"

In relation to 5m, not sure how you come up with that figure as many ORVs are second line vehicles, ranging from about 2002-2007 for the most part. More modern vehicles are in the minority. Some of the fleet is well worn and probably worth about 3,000. Others could be worth up to 15000 on a resale. Even if you sold them all and raised, say 1m (unlikely), it is a once off figure. You still end up spending more on travelling expenses (these guys travel a lot around their large geographical areas to do their jobs). So you save nothing, in fact you spend more and loose the operational capacity of Officers out of hours. Officers for the most part earn less than the people they manage (again do an FOI)

Once of savings if any from selling cars would be a once of saving. You need 10m EVERY year, to pay wages.

karlitob wrote: »

Hey CrackCrack - you're taking all the abuse/questions and keeping the cool. Well done.

To rebut your points:
Long Term Sick: yes I agree but no different than any other job.

The Environment: I might have to challenge you there. You're as exposed as Gardai or Fire Brigade when treating these patients. While you have a range of patients, the gen. pop. that you meet are not more or less infectious than a person you meet in the shop. I can't see how you infection rates would be higher than a nurse or doctor treating sick patients for the entire working day every day. And again, they're sick rate is 3.5%.

Method of Recording: That is interesting. Doesn't seem to make sense to me. Is there a reason for that. Surely, you are identified as being on sick leave for the rostered time and not your off-time. Again, surely management would 'fix' this issue if it meant making the absenteeism rates look smaller. More too it than what you say, I suggest.

Individual Cases: again, I agree with you. This is normal and no difference than any other staff member in the hospital system. Management have a number of tools available to them to address long term sick leave.

Stress: again, I don't doubt it. But, with respect, every job has its stresses. Yes, paramedics see serious stuff. But so do nurses staff, medics and surgeons. In fact, medical/surgical absenteeism rates are near 0.5%!!!...continually... check out health stat for those stats. These staff have continually high stress levels (as do people in finance jobs etc etc) - a surgeon naturally has patients lives in their hands every day. Nursing staff in ICU/ED is a particularly stressful job. As I say, paramedics see serious stuff but its not all serious ...falls, dickie ticker, a bit of COPD etc. Its not all cutting people out of cars - and I mean that with respect.

I think I've answered burnout.

My question is: if paramedics are highlighting how the lack of resources are directly contributing to deaths - why do they not realise that they are the important resource and that by them not showing up to work are letting their colleagues down and their patients and are in fact contributing directly to deaths/poor outcomes of patients.

Thanks for reviewing.