Paramedics behind
Published: April 13, 2009 8:00 AM
Updated: April 13, 2009 8:27 AM
As the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS) rolls out its spin machine for the media, they have chosen to leave out some facts that even their vast numbers of bureacrts can’t put a positive spin to.
Those facts are: While they may be offering a whopping three per cent for one year right now, the other two years of their three-year contract offering is zero and zero.
Unbelievably, this offer comes on the heels of another zero-ridden contract.
A history of zero wage increases explains why the paramedics are tens of thousands of dollars behind the province’s other emergency servcie providers.
Today’s paramedics are highly trained professionals, not the “ambulance drivers” of World War Two. They save lives every day and do much to ensure the safety of thousands of patients.
This does not even begin to address their demanding shift work – two 12-hour days, followed by two 12-hour nights. Many clinical studies have shown the toll taken on one’s body working such short-cycle shift patterns.
It is interesting to note that when a report was released (commissioned by the BCAS), it urged the immediate addition of 14 new ambulances to meet the needs of B.C.’s rapid and significant population growth in some sectors as no new resources had been added in many years.
But no, rather than put front line resources on the road, the BCAS chose to beef up its bloated management ranks while adding only one new ambulance.
They couldn’t find money for more than one new ambulance, but could find the money for adding 146 new bureaucrats.
Jean Ledgerwood
