“Many paramedics would be better off working at McDonald’s,” says Scott Everitt, Yorkshire Ambulance Specialist. I.
Pay is not the only issue, but it is an important factor that will convince paramedics and other emergency services to go on strike on Wednesday.
With high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, he says, some colleagues would be better off working in retail.
“The average salary of a paramedic is around £26,000 a year. I get paid well because I am a paramedic and therefore get a slightly higher salary, but I have colleagues who have a very hard time,” he says.
“Some of our lifeguards would be better off working for Tesco. A lot of paramedics would be better off working at McDonald’s.”
Mr Everitt will be picketing on Wednesday as up to 25,000 paramedics, 999 on-duty workers and lifeguards across England and Wales walk out over a wage dispute. He hopes the paramedics’ strike, the first in 30 years, “will shed light on how bad things are in the NHS.”
“On Monday morning I was at work, and the night before the patient called 999,” he says. “There are more and more situations like this. At the hospital where I worked on weekends, I had to wait 13 hours to see a doctor.
“On Sunday, two patients went into cardiac arrest while queuing for ambulances, resulting in one patient being hospitalized. They just had nowhere to go. 11 ambulances lined up at the hospital. The National Health Service is simply broken. The complete absence of long-term personnel planning.
He says the situation for paramedics has worsened since he started working as a paramedic.
“Today we see a lot more patients than 14 years ago when I started working as a paramedic,” says Mr. Everitt.
“People can’t get a therapist so they call 911 who can send an ambulance and then we have a record 999 calls to deal with.
“We are losing people because they are fed up. The NHS used to be a great place to work. Don’t get me wrong, everyone loves their job, but the government can’t find the money to invest in EMS.
“We do the same work that people do in Scotland and the Scottish government increased the wages of employees by 5% last year, then we got 3% and this year 7.9%. They are already about 10 percent better than us. It’s time for our government to be real.”
Mr. Everitt, who is also an emergency room nurse, said the most seriously ill patients during the strike will get emergency care faster “because we’re not going to do all the other things that emergency services have to do, because no one else doesn’t want to.” to do this”.
He says, “Your high-priority category 1 calls, such as B. cardiac arrest, will still be answered. It depends on what union the people are in. [whether an ambulance will be sent to certain patients]. I’m from Unison, and we’ve agreed to help out of the home for publicly available category 2 patients – for example, anyone who has a heart attack.
“I love my job and my patients. I like this. I just feel that now is the time for ministers to accept reality. If people need emergency services, the government should start treating us like that.”
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.