Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Falling Apart

This past week has seen our Emergency Services in the spotlight as N.I.A.S has come under fire for generally being a bit shitty.

Unison, the biggest (and most conceited) union for the service said their members voted unanimously 'no confidence' in the NIAS board.  

They released a statement yesterday and while they raise several very valid points (not enough staff, cancelled leave, delays in hospitals and insufficient rest periods), there were a couple of things that stood out for me. Directly from the Unison Briefing:

UNISON currently represents approximately 750 ambulance staff across Northern Ireland.  UNISON Shop Stewards and staff representatives from across the province voted unanimously that they no longer had confidence in the NIAS Trust Board

So they didn't actually poll their members..not the best no confidence vote out there.

UNISON is confident that the Northern Ireland public holds their ambulance staff in the highest regard. Not just for the work they do presently, but for the sacrifice, loyalty and dedication they demonstrated throughout “the Troubles”.  The public will recognize these comments for what they were, an attempt to blame the shortcomings of management on the staff

You know when American right wing news stations refer to 9/11 as a way to get public sympathy? It's kind of horrifying really, to use memories of a national tragedy that (or in the case of our little island, tragedies) to soften up the public.  This is what Unison did here, they 9/11'd us with this press release.

Yesterday some guy from Unison (who from what i could gather isn't actually ambulance service personnel as he didn't seem to know much about it) and the Chief Exec of NIAS were on the radio with locally famous/hated hate monger & stirrer of pots, Steven Nolan.  Neither of them came out of it well.

So what will happen to our precious service? Hopefully it will be ok. I've no doubt that the public, as i do, support the staff who clearly do a difficult job.  NIAS managers have made some regrettable comments in the media but the responses we've been hearing from the staff are beginning to sound equally as petty.  Lets hope the situation is sorted soon before someone suffers the consequences of this collective clusterfuck.