In recent years the concept of the e-petition has got a lot bigger and in many cases has been used effectively. Like anything that can be created by anyone online it is left open to misuse. In America a similar principle led to a petition to get the US government to build the Death Star as seen Star Wars! The point of the e-petition as set out on the government website is 'If you have a strong opinion about an issue relating to our policies which you’d like to raise you can register it as an e-petition'. Recently The Oliver King Foundation petitioned for defibrillators to be installed in all schools and wanted legislation to back that up. Sadly the House of Commons debate didn't get the result we all wanted but it showed the power of the e-petition.
My issue, is with the misuse of e-petitions for personal gain. I'm sure I'll get a lot of complaints and abuse from my fellow professionals for this, but I am totally against a recent e-petition for more money for paramedics. Let me explain why!
Entitled 'Increase UK Paramedic Pay to NHS Agenda for Change pay Band 6' the title cuts to point but is this a) appropriate and b) how we want our profession to be portrayed?
Paramedic training requires them to undertake Advanced Driving qualifications and attend an approved Paramedic Course via an Ambulance Service or University to register as a Paramedic. Many Paramedics go on to complete Bachelors and Masters Degrees and even Doctorates. As the Senior Ambulance Service healthcare professional the Paramedic takes complete clinical responsibility at accidents or medical emergencies. Paramedics assess patient's using and interpreting high-tech equipment, such as defibrillators, monitoring equipment, ECG’s, and spinal and traction splints. As autonomous clinicians they have over 40 drugs at their disposal and the ability to perform life saving procedures. Add to that the injuries caused by constantly carrying heavy equipment, manual handling of patients, abuse, assaults, ever increasing demand, cuts in Ambulance Service funding and public sector pensions, we ask you, the government, to pay Paramedics what they deserve.
Don't get me wrong, it is a challenging job and there are a lot of areas that need improving but asking for more money in this way is not the way to go about it. For starters, if an e-petition is being set up it needs to be done so by a body representative of the profession, not an individual. We are represented by the College of Paramedics but the fact they havn't even obtained a royal status due to lack of member speaks volumes about the lack of voice we have in the medical community. If we want a voice, we need to speak together. Add to that, the fact that the petition itself is badly written and reads like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel, it can give little confidence in the cause. It hardly paints us in a good image where we can be taken seriously when the petition a) refers to 'patient's' not 'patients' and b) is asking for money despite highlighting the ambulance service is facing a funding cut!
Sure, we have to do a driving course and yes, some have degrees. We do make clinical decisions and use the equipment we are trained to. It's true, we give lots of drugs and carry heavy patients and yes, the carrying of bags is a pain but that is the job we applied to do. We knew the salary when we applied, we knew patients and bags need carrying and we are compensated for it. Obviously, I would like more money, who wouldn't, but compared to the national average salary we are paid well. We are all in relatively secure jobs with sick pay, annual leave and a pension. In the economic climate where there are 1000's of people queuing for jobs when a new supermarket opens and 100,000s are facing the very real threat of unemployment, asking for a pay rise is hugely inappropriate. It is not the time, nor the place.
The question of banding of salaries came about in the now outdated Agenda for Change and our job role has change a lot since then. Our skill-set has expanded and we now have a lot more clinical responsibility than we did. A registered paramedic is no longer a Band 5 job and I do think that the salary bands need modernising but an e-petition is not the way to do it. E-petitions should be left to things that benefit society as whole and will make a real difference to the country, not a small body of people.
We all know there is salary disparity across the country and it is wrong that a manager in McDonalds earns more than a paramedic but salaries cannot be quantified across the public and the private sector. If there is an e-petition for paramedics to get more money, there could be just as many reasons for a nurse to get more. And an HCA, an EMT, an ECA, an ECP, a junior doctor, the list is endless. There is no more money. The reason every department in the NHS is facing cuts is testament to this. Do we really think the government and even the general public are interested in increasing the wage bill when everyone else is feeling the pinch? We could debate for days and days the rights and wrongs of NHS cuts and the real cause of the economic climate we are facing but the fact is, as a country, we are in the shit. Now is the time to be securing people's jobs and securing the delivery of free health care to the masses, not lining our own pockets.
So, without further ado, I now open this post to debate and abuse. I'm expecting the same backlash as when I criticised the unions! Bring it!