Pic – Paramedics and EMTs on the picket line in Dungloe this morning
A 24 hour strike by ambulance workers is underway.
A long running dispute between the National Ambulance Service and unions have led to around 2 thousand workers taking action today.
The row is over grading and pay related to a programme of modernisation and training within the service.
The HSE is warning of potentially long delays to non-life-threatening call outs.
However the 999 service is operating and priority is being given to emergency cases.
Conor Deasy – President of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine – says the strike must be resolved………
Meanwhile, the Irish Patients Association says it recognises the immense pressure ambulance personnel are working under and the increasingly advanced clinical responsibilities now carried within modern pre-hospital emergency care.
However, with major disruption to emergency response capacity now anticipated, the Association says the situation has moved beyond a routine industrial relations dispute and into an area of legitimate patient-safety concern.
Statement in full –
Patients must not be used as pawns by any party in an industrial dispute.
The public warnings issued by senior ambulance and emergency clinicians regarding delays, reduced response capacity and the possibility that some patients may need to make their own way to the hospital underline the seriousness of the current situation.
Emergency care is not an abstract service. For many patients and families, calling an ambulance represents one of the most frightening and vulnerable moments of their lives.
The advice now being issued to the public must also be communicated very carefully. One of the hidden risks during periods of emergency disruption is that vulnerable patients may begin second-guessing serious symptoms or delaying urgent care because they do not wish to burden the system.
The Irish Patients Association fully respects the State’s industrial relations mechanisms. However, history shows that where essential healthcare services and patient safety are at risk, intensified engagement and visible leadership have frequently accompanied formal industrial relations processes.
We are not calling for political interference in the outcome of negotiations. We are calling for every possible effort to help ensure the conditions exist for meaningful and urgent engagement before risks deepen further
If the system moves rapidly following a serious adverse event, patients and families are entitled to ask why every possible effort is not being intensified now while there is still time to reduce risk.
The protection of patients must now become the overriding priority for all involved, alongside urgent and meaningful engagement aimed at preventing further escalation and reducing risk to vulnerable patients
