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Mr. Martin Dunne,
Director of the National Ambulance Service
Office of the Director of the National Ambulance Service
National Ambulance Service
Health Service Executive
Rivers Building,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24
27th April 2016
DKEM 04.16
Dear Mr. Dunne,
Previous correspondence refers.
In the first instance I want to emphasise for your attention the anger, fear and the extremely poor morale of the Ambulance Paramedic Workforce in the Midlands Area:
• Anger at the imposition of a rostering system which represents a very damaging threat to their home and working lives and undermines patient response times and safety.
• Fear of the implications for their future in the Ambulance Service.
• The only thing which lifts morale is the anger they feel towards Ambulance Service Management.
They balloted in huge numbers in favour of Strike Action. At the same time they are highly conscious of the service they provide to the community, the support they enjoy in the community and their concern to be responsible professionals, taking Industrial Action as a very last resort.
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National Secretary, Tony Gregg was awarded the PNA 2016 National Merit Award for his work on behalf of NASRA members - the award was presented by PNA Chairman, Fintan Leahy at the Annual Delegate Conference in Cavan.
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Ambulance transfer of people with mental illness a tragedy waiting to happen
NASRA , the National Ambulance Service Representative Association said today (Friday 15 th April) that services nationally are seriously under resourced and the public are being put at risk unless there is significant recruitment of new staff to meet the demands of greater reliance on the ambulance service within the health services.
Speaking at NASRA's ADC in Cavan, National Chairman Michael Dixon said the role of ambulance paramedic in now one of the most demanding, stressful and under paid in the health services, yet the grade of paramedic is not even recognised by the HSE. He said management of the national ambulance service is chaotic, with a growing reliance on extended and unsustainable 12 -15 hour rosters, overtime, and non-rostered staff and cancellation of leave to keep ambulances on the road.
‘The demands on the ambulance services in the context of the reconfiguration of local hospital services have grown enormously but without any matching increase in staff. The Department of Health has to date not published the NAS Capacity Review of staff, but from what we know of this review, the NAS is up to 500 staff short of what is needed to provide a fully staffed and sustainable ambulance service to meet current demands.'
