QLD Residents, it is time to help your Paramedics

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by jjw

I respect your right to lobby for more money (who wouldn't) but don't pretend that the Govt is holding out on you just for the sake of being difficult (I know this is not a popular view, but this isn't A Current Affair and thus doesn't have to appeal to the lowest common denominator). To pay more in one area (wages), they've got to either reduce expenditure (withdraw services?) or raise income (increase taxes). Perhaps the emails to the Minister could also indicate who is willing to increase their taxation contributions or what Govt spending should be axed (that could be fun) to fund the payrise.

I don't know whether or not ambos (or anybody else for that matter) deserve the sort of payrises claimed or offerred, but note that if everybody got pay rises at 5% to match a CPI increase, imagine what CPI would be in the following quarter...have we any economists on the forum? - say hello 1980's south america.

Re CPI however, I'd say from what the Reserve Bank has just done (0.75% cut), the economy is heading south and the CPI will be a fair bit lower that that in the near future anyway.

Agreed in parts.

Yes they do need to cut expenditure, but it is where they do it that counts. Some of what I am about to say will strike a chord with some, some will not.

1. Cut the expenditure of building a new Emergency Services Headquarters building, the one they have is still functional and not that old, we have vehicles on the road that are older than a lot of that complex. There is a saving of tens of millions.

2 Start using teleconferencing like the rest of the business world for conferences involving departments spread over large distances. At the moment they fly Area Directors from all over the state to have meetings every couple of months, not to mention their accommodation and large fancy lunches.

3. Cut upper management jobs and get rid of these ridiculous committees, for example the committee that was given the task of dealing with staff health and coming up with a management plan for heat waves. A couple of senior officers (assistant commissioner level) spent 6 months full time on the study and came up with eskies with ice and bottled water along with cans of antiperspirant being placed at the hospitals. Guess they asked what the local day care centre thought, the kids not the adults.

4. Reduce the amount of middle management jobs, we need more indians and not so many chiefs. Example, when I started we had just the Communication Centre Supervisor in the Communications Centre and a couple of duty officers out on the road for management support for every shift. We now have the Communication Centre Supervisor, Clinical Dispatch Supervisor, Regional Operations coordinator and Regional Operations Supervisor all in the communications centre on each shift. On top of this we still have a number of duty officers on road and there is a plan to also have 5 Area Liason Officers in the Brisbane region that slot in between the Area Directors and the Station Officers, positions that have never existed before. A lot of this was to address the increase in work load but at the same time they reduced the number of operational vehicles on the road. Why do we need all these extra managers, there is at least $1-2M per year in extra wages.

5. Slash the fleet of non operational/non transport vehicles and put the lower management in the older ambulances instead of them driving new sedans while the operational crews are operating vehicles that have been in service for 15 years and breakdown constantly. There is a couple of million.

6. Slash the number of management junkets, travelling the world talking to other services and not implementing any worthwhile changes.

7. Reduce the number of non emergency calls; prevent the public from using us as a mobile GP service. Example, one of my colleagues went to a man trapped in jacket, he could not get his zipper down. Luckily the zipper was fixed and another life saved. Another example, we have a lady in our area that never goes to a GP when her kids are sick (even a cold), she calls an ambulance. Or maybe the others that when they call because they have a cold, when asked why they called an ambulance, why they did not go their GP, state clearly "I pay my contribution, I want my monies worth". That list is long and extensive, too many to mention and each paramedic could blow your mind with hundreds of examples of BS calls that are obviously not ambulance cases but we have to attend.

Each one of those calls cost the system over $500, not hard to see that would save a mint. We need to go back to providing an emergency service, not a medical taxi service. We need to give the call takers in the communications centre the ability to refuse provision of an ambulance. We also need the paramedics to be able to refuse transport if not clinically required. Not wanting to take someone that is vomiting in a personal car (because it might get on the seats) is not reason for an ambulance, especially when the family follow behind in their own car. Hell, I will even provide a sick bag or two for the trip. If this could be done, service expenditure could be slashed by millions, requiring less crews on road and better pay and conditions for those that are there.

There is just a few ways that I can think of, off the top of my head, give me a bit more time and I could at least triple that list.

As for inflation, in SE QLD the average raise in the cost of living over the last couple of years has been over 6%, the state average is 5%. We have received pay rises of 2x4% in the last 3 years and offered 4% for the next three. Not hard to see that in the next 3 years we will end up significantly worse off than we were 3 yrs ago. In my view, any EBA that consists of a pay rise that does not at least equal the average increase in the annual cost of living is a pay cut. How would you like a pay cut every year for the next 3?

At the end of the day, the government is not holding out just to be difficult, that has never been suggested. They are allocating ambulance budget to cover expenses, in all facets in which it is required. I will suggest that it is the staff who are financially worse off than they were 3 years ago, that is paying for the government and departmental mismanagement and poor allocation of those funds. I personally am sick and tired of working longer hours for less financial capability so that ministers and management can squander it. I personally am looking at other employment options, and I could name 20 other paramedics that are doing the same right now, reason purely because we can not afford to do this anymore (despite the fact that we love the job). In my area that consists of 7 stations, we are in excess of 30 officers short in manning. Not hard to see that taking another 15 or so off that will significantly decrease the service that is provided for the community. At the moment the shortfalls in manning are propped up by the underpaid Paramedics having to work overtime shifts to cover expenses, which increases their fatigue and stress levels, to the detriment of their own health and wellbeing of their own family.

Like I have said before, be here for us when we need you, so we can be there for you when you need us!