Ambulance staff to be balloted for strike action
SIPTU, which represents the paramedics, has alleged that over the Christmas period, the HSE awarded three contracts to Blackrock, Medicall and Lifeline ambulance services for work which its members would normally have carried out.
Matt Merrigan of SIPTU said the contracts were advertised on the e-tenders website rather than on the ambulance website and so his members only became aware last week that they had actually awarded the contracts to applicants.
The matter has been a bone of contention between the ambulance service and the HSE for a more than a year with paramedics concerned the move will lead to a reduction of service to people relying on the ambulance personnel.
In mid-2007, in an attempt to broach agreement, the two sides agreed to the establishment of a sub-committee to examine the best way forward.
It was thought the assignation of contracts to the private sector would be delayed until the outcome of that process.
However, according to Mr Merrigan, that sub-committee has so far reached no conclusions and so the decision to award contracts was a breach of the agreement between the two sides.
Mr Merrigan said the HSE had been told under arbitration that it must appoint more paramedics, but that rather than appointing those extra numbers in the public service the HSE was trying to undermine agreements which are in place with existing paramedics by drafting in private crews.
The union is to ballot its members on February 9.
Frank McClintock, head of the national ambulance service, said: “The HSE is totally committed to the development of the National Ambulance Service. The private companies represent a very small part of the work we do — our expenditure of less than 4% of our total budget clearly demonstrates this. In the main their work is focused on the transportation of patients rather than emergency call outs.
We need our highly qualified and emergency personnel for the emergency work.
“However, we also need to transport patients and we need to ensure the safety of those patients. To do this we needed to impose defined standards. We have been able to do this through the tender process,” he said.
