Ambulance Service- More Cutbacks

Bang Bang

More cutbacks have been announced within the HSE Ambulance Service.
There has been a long standing agreement in place wherby if you are based outside Dublin and you are required to attend the National Ambulance Training School in the Phoenix Park, you were paid one overnight subsistence allowance to help toward accommodation and expence at getting there. It was recently announced in some areas that this subsistance is now gone and will not be paid to any EMT/Paramedics who are currently attending the ongoing Continuous Professional Development courses. So you foot the bill yourself. How many members will now withdraw their interest?? Probably not many because members are being told if they fail to attend any CPD courses then this will reflect in their state registration as a Paramedic!!

It was also mentioned by some that there is a freeze on purchasing equipment in certain areas and Paramedics have apparently been told to "aquire" equipment at A&E departments and "borrow" from other stations..!!!

The overtime cutbacks are going to hurt, not the staff as much, but who's gonna cover annual leave and sick leave if a Paramedic has "earned" his quota of overtime for that week, what if all Paramedic's in a station have reached their O/T quota for that week, yet there are still shifts to be covered?
Who will crew the Ambulances then? Will vehicles be dropped from the roster thus leaving some areas with little or no Emergency Ambulance cover?

The fiasco of the uniform issue that dragged on for years costing millions of €uro has not been mentioned, so who's liable for that? Let the cutbacks start at their office and roll upwards, not downwards toward the overstretched crews on the street....

dredre

Bang Bang wrote: »

More cutbacks have been announced within the HSE Ambulance Service.
There has been a long standing agreement in place wherby if you are based outside Dublin and you are required to attend the National Ambulance Training School in the Phoenix Park, you were paid one overnight subsistence allowance to help toward accommodation and expence at getting there.

This was also paid to people who stayed at home and commuted to the courses. Receipts were not required.

It was also mentioned by some that there is a freeze on purchasing equipment in certain areas and Paramedics have apparently been told to "aquire" equipment at A&E departments

This has been happening for years

Who will crew the Ambulances then? Will vehicles be dropped from the roster thus leaving some areas with little or no Emergency Ambulance cover?

This too has been happening often enough for years

The fiasco of the uniform issue that dragged on for years costing millions of €uro has not been mentioned, so who's liable for that? Let the cutbacks start at their office and roll upwards, not downwards toward the overstretched crews on the street....

Agreed

ScubaDave

Will a practice of bringing in the voluntaries be brought back in? I know that this practice was common in some HSE areas in the past. I, even as a member of a voluntary organisation, do not support this as it is no substitute for a qualified Paramedic.

Thoughts?

Elessar

ScubaDave wrote: »

Will a practice of bringing in the voluntaries be brought back in? I know that this practice was common in some HSE areas in the past. I, even as a member of a voluntary organisation, do not support this as it is no substitute for a qualified Paramedic.

Thoughts?

Voluntaries still provide ambulance services in some parts of the country.

To be honest, I would be more concerned about the union ballots for strike action happening for HSE staff including ambulance workers. What's going to be done if there is an all out strike?

TheNog

All the talk of frontline services not being hit, eh?

Is or was there no cuts at all from the top?

timmywex

Whats the overtime allowanc/quota? Thatll really affect services if its at all cut

Bang Bang

dredre wrote: »

This was also paid to people who stayed at home and commuted to the courses. Receipts were not required.



This has been happening for years



This too has been happening often enough for years



Agreed

Regarding the issue of people staying at home, yes of course it happens, but there is also the other side of the coin where some staff do actually have to book a B&B as their travel distance is too great.

As for not purchasing supplies, yes but this was just taken on board by certain staff in authority. There is now a written directive not to purchase supplies. We have been told to "borrow" cannulas, syringes, needles etc from other stations and A&E departments.


Now onto the purchase of the Megasus Bariatric stretchers that hinder the working space in the back of an ambulance which renders them basically useless. So most or all of these stretchers are sitting in store rooms around the country at a cost to the taxpayer of €850,000.

So more financial f**k ups from on high. Yet the Paramedic and the patient are left to pick up the pieces.

Oh what about the person in authority and his wife who enjoyed a "Holiday" in Las Vegas that they apparently "won" in a competition, the tab for the "Holiday" was picked up by Ferno, the company that manufactures and supplies the Megasus stretcher, the same company that received that €850,000 of Irish tax payers money....

Oh by the way, I do enjoy my job, it's the incompetence of certain areas of the HSE that bugs me...

Tango Alpha 51

Bang Bang wrote: »

Regarding the issue of people staying at home, yes of course it happens, but there is also the other side of the coin where some staff do actually have to book a B&B as their travel distance is too great.

As for not purchasing supplies, yes but this was just taken on board by certain staff in authority. There is now a written directive not to purchase supplies. We have been told to "borrow" cannulas, syringes, needles etc from other stations and A&E departments.


Now onto the purchase of the Megasus Bariatric stretchers that hinder the working space in the back of an ambulance which renders them basically useless. So most or all of these stretchers are sitting in store rooms around the country at a cost to the taxpayer of €850,000.

So more financial f**k ups from on high. Yet the Paramedic and the patient are left to pick up the pieces.

Oh what about the person in authority and his wife who enjoyed a "Holiday" in Las Vegas that they apparently "won" in a competition, the tab for the "Holiday" was picked up by Ferno, the company that manufactures and supplies the Megasus stretcher, the same company that received that €850,000 of Irish tax payers money....

Oh by the way, I do enjoy my job, it's the incompetence of certain areas of the HSE that bugs me...

Haven't seen any written directive in relation to "borrowing" of equipment from other depts within the HSE. I've seen the megasus in action (we have 3) & yes whilst space might be slightly smaller than normal, i still like to have the option of the expaned stretcher sides, it does make it more comfortable for the pt

Tango Alpha 51

The only memo I've seen in relation to O/T is that annual leave can't be covered on o/t says nothing about sick leave. I do agree however that it is getting tougher to cover shifts & there has been lately shifts where we have have dropped ambulances due to the above. Ultimately it is the pt & the remaining duty crews that suffer

wallalla

Oh what about the person in authority and his wife who enjoyed a "Holiday" in Las Vegas that they apparently "won" in a competition, the tab for the "Holiday" was picked up by Ferno, the company that manufactures and supplies the Megasus stretcher, the same company that received that €850,000 of Irish tax payers money

Who is that person. Thats not acceptable. Thats plain corroupt. That person should be investigated for taking bribes. I work in private sector. Thats my money wasted as well as yours. The Comptroller and Auditor General should be responsible here. But hey what am I thinking. I cant beat the old boys back rubbing club. You people in the service should shop that person to uncle joe duffy. Come on its not impossible. Some one of you can do it.

Whitewater-AGS

Joe Duffy the cause of, and answer to all of lifes problems

wallalla

Yea but he's great. All aboard the Joe Duffy Express, stay on it and ride out the recession. Yipeee.
That HSE stuff realy gets my blood pressure up. I can't accept bribes in my job, I would be fired in the morning, no investigation just fired. How come that guy has'nt been held to account. There is enough detail on this thread to warrant an investigation by the HSE. Would not be hard to find the person given the detail.

wallalla

First mention of hse and investigation and we get silence. I think I am the only non hse employee on this thread. No mystrey here

leadinglady

no ...i'm here too.....

i'm not hse, i'm all for investigations. maybe we'll get some money from them?