About Ambos and their conditions
Paramedics exist in our society to save lives, but they’re not often thought about. They sit in the back of our minds until an emergency happens to us – and then were either freaking out too much or in no condition to pay attention.
Think about what they face on a daily basis: Ill or dying children, criminals, car accidents with casualties, blood, broken bones, heart attacks, cardiac arrests, anaphylactic reactions and so, so much more. Is that something you could face? They put them selves in dangerous, intensely stressful and tragic situations for you. And they do it all for little – no thanks.
so you’d think, after reading that, that they get reasonable hours? That they get paid a respectable amount?
They don’t. Victorian Paramedics don’t, anyway.
My Aunt is a Paramedic and has been for 10 years. Her husband, who works as a librarian, gets paid more than her.
Lets just compare those jobs shall we? A librarian: sits at a desk, sorts through books, does some paperwork. A Paramedic: constantly on the move, constantly in danger, constantly in stressful situations, constantly reviving our family and friends from deaths door
Someone tell me, in what parallel universe does that make any sense? Think about your job. – Do you think you could do what paramedics do? Work under that amount of pressure? Because you’re probably being paid more than them.
And then there’s the working hours situation.
They are expected to work 2 day shifts and 2 night shifts per 8 days in full time roster. You might think, thats alright, 4 days on 4 days off! Thats better than a 5 day a week desk job.
It’s not. A normal desk job has hours 9-5 weekdays in a full time position. Thats 42 hours pw.
Paramedics are expected to work 10 hour day shifts and 14 hour night shifts – with LITTLE – NO BREAK. with the conditions the way they are at the moment, it’s not unusual for paramedics to only get 5 minutes to pick up something quickly on a break, or in some cases not at all, because they are so often called out to a job before they’ve had the chance.
and thats 48 hours in 8 days – so 42 hours a week. and then of course theres the fact that paramedics pretty much lose a day to sleep because of the long nightshift hours.
AND the above is NOT including the overtime that paramedics are often forced to do. If they get called to a job 5 minutes before their shift ends, they have no choice but to go. More often than not, paramedics have to work an extra 1-2 hours whether they want to or not, and now with less ambulances and worse conditions its not unusual for overtime to creep up to 3-4 hour.
Thats potentially a 16-18 hour shift with a half hour break if they’re lucky.
Whats more, my mother had to quit being a paramedic because they tried to force her to work full-time after all her kids where in school. At the time she had a 5yo, a 10yo and a 14yo, and a husband who worked interstate. considering what I just explained above, that wasn’t going to be physically possible unless we got a live in nanny – who we wouldn’t have been able to afford because of the low wages.
keeo reading for the issues their facing at the moment
Paramedics and Politics
For far, far too long, paramedics weren’t allowed to speak agains Ambulance Victoria. My mum would hear stories from colleagues, and my aunt would tell me about how crappy their conditions were and as soon as someone tried to stand up for the cause, they were fired. I’m not kidding, people posted complaints on their Facebook and where ‘let go’. And then those who were fired for stupid reasons like that would go to court, and AV just wouldn’t let up! There would be trials, and re-trial. Until finally the poor guy who just wants the job that he loves back gives up. The amount of money wasted in court cases – who knows how many extra ambulances and lives saved there could be today – and remember Paramedics can’t go on strike, too many people would suffer!
ANYWAY, someone about a year ago decided to start writing on the ambulance at their branch with chalk paint. It comes in a pen thats super easy to wash off – and the trend stuck. AV officials would rub it off and point the blame, but it started a movement and finally, FINALLY, after at least a decade of issues, fair work Australia got on board.
So great! Yay, paramedics can stand up for themselves now. But whats that done?
It’s made me realise how determined politicians are to make everything more complicated than it needs to be – thats what.
under the napthine government (the victorian premier) 1 in 4 people, a QUATER. will not get an ambulance in time. Because theres not enough and the stupid backwards dumbass government is using taxpayers money on stupid things instead of buying more ambulances: which would save lives. Watch the attached video for more info.
So theres been a few articles in the paper now about paramedics, most of them controlled bythe government (as pretty much all media is these days, its worth thinking about that) which basically means they’re all about how ambulance Victoria is actually all rainbows and unicorns and paramedics are just being drama queens. Which from what I just told you, we all know that’s not true. The media has been twisting the truth to the point of flat out lying on a number of occasions. Heres a link to one such article:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/paramedics-pay-not-an-emergency/story-fni0fh8t-1226678921269
admittedly, this article was written this time last year, but things haven’t really changed. And this article makes me so, so angry. It questions how much we think paramedics should be paid, answering for the public with ‘whatever they want’ and then answers itself with this:
“But if you are the Victorian Government trying to pay its way in straitened economic circumstances, the answer is very different.”
wtf government. Go home. Your drunk.
Let be honest, all the Abbott government knows to do is pay its way towards chaos.
And then everything else in the article is either twisted fact or wrong. To see what the facts really are, this article on fair go Australia wraps up the truth in comparison pretty nicely
http://www.fair-go.com/blog/2013/07/25/ambulance-fact-sheet-no-1/
SO then of course there is the problem they are currently facing. Dennis Napthine, the victorian premier, has offered the paramedics a pay rise. Hooray! But wait… What’s that written in the fine print?
They are being offered something called an arbitrary… I think thats what its called, were a third party coms in and decides what they think the ambo’s should be paid. It’s not what they asked for, but they’re haopy with that. What they are NOT okay with, and rightly so, is a changed condition.
a condition that states ALL Victorian paramedics may be subject to being a reliever. At the moment, it’s voluntary, and very rightly so. What it means is AV can send you ANYWHERE in Victoria for a month. If my mum was still working now, that would mean she might have to go to bendigo for a month and have no say in the matter. My dad still works interstate, and my two siblings still go to school, and as I am currently studying that would not be physically possible. And what about any single mums and dads? They cant just take their kids out of school for a month.
So there you have it – the ridiculous circumstances surrounding paramedics at the moment. The purpose of this article was to make more people aware of the situation – but if you want to be more actively involved you can support the ambos by buying their CODE RED merchandise at
http://www.floodmarketing.com.au/shop/default.asp?client=unitedvoice
like this page: https://www.facebook.com/SupportAussieParamedics
and this page: https://www.facebook.com/coderedambos
or/ and you can continue reading. I’ll link some articles that back up what I’ve said, and that have the stories of ambos who have had the worst of it.
Links
Letter to the editor by a gippsland paramedic
http://www.gippslandtimes.com.au/story/2415078/paramedic-angst-is-well-founded/?cs=1198
Scary respinse times due to lack of ambulances!
http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/ambulance-crisis-plunges-to-new-depths-20140510-zr91w.html
, Problems Paying Paramedics? www.ozeldersin.com bitirme tezi,ödev,proje dönem ödevi