Scottish Labour has backed calls to upgrade the status of the Scottish Ambulance Service from an ‘essential service’ to an ‘emergency service’ like the police and fire services, in order to help resolve the on-going dispute over how to manage rest breaks.
 
Scottish Labour said the proposal, which has today been backed by all trade unions involved in on-going talks about how to best manage rest breaks that are interrupted by emergency calls, is a “positive, long-term” solution to the dispute.
 
The interim arrangements to provide emergency cover, whereby ambulance workers are interrupted only if a call is placed in the highest level of emergency, will continue while talks are on-going.
 
Following reports that emergency calls are being artificially downgraded, Scottish Labour has also raised concerns about the impact the interim arrangements were having on patient safety.
 
The Party reiterated its call for the SNP government to hold an urgent parliamentary statement on the impact the interim arrangements.
 
Scottish Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Jackie Baillie MSP, said:
 
“People don’t choose when or where to have an accident. Our Ambulance Service needs to be on standby round the clock and it is only fair that the ambulance workers we rely on in our hour of need receive a fair deal for the hours they work.
 
“We believe upgrading the status of the Ambulance Service from an essential service to an emergency service – and the contractual changes for staff this brings – could provide a positive, long-term solution.”
 
Ms Baillie added:
 
“The feedback I have been getting from ambulance workers is that the new system imposed upon them last year is seeing emergency calls being downgraded which could compromise patient safety. We cannot afford a situation where patients’ lives are being put at risk because the SNP government has failed to strike a deal that properly balances public safety and fairness for ambulance workers.
 
“On an issue as important as this, parliament must be informed of progress. The public deserve a reassurance that the interim measures are robust and that public safety is not being undermined.”