Ambulance drivers step up action

Ambulance drivers would only be carrying out emergency work as from Tuesday, the Union Haddiema Maqghudin said in a statement yesterday.

Also from that day, the drivers would not be checking what medical equipment their ambulance would need, the union added.

The ambulance drivers were stepping up industrial action despite the fact that it was not the union's wish to take action in the health sector, the union said.

Since the case could not be taken to the industrial tribunal, according to industrial relations law, the union was left with no other alternative, it said.

After more than seven weeks of partial industrial action over a request for an allowance for the ambulance drivers, the government has continued to refuse to discuss the matter seriously, the union said.

The government was ready to squander thousands of liri to provide alternative transport, but not willing to reach a fair agreement which would cost less in financial terms.

On its part, the Health Division in a statement yesterday said that the ambulance drivers' industrial action was causing hardship to patients, preventing services from being provided, causing delays in their treatment and prolonging stays in hospital.

On Tuesday, a middle-aged patient who needed urgent treatment for her cancer at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, could not be transferred to the hospital due to the ongoing dispute. The hospital administration had no option but to use a private ambulance service against payment.

On Wednesday, a patient who needed an urgent CT scan at St Luke's Hospital was not provided transport and, again, the hospital administration had to use a private ambulance against payment.

In the first five days of the month, no fewer than 34 requests for ambulance service, generated directly by the public to be transported to the casualty department, were refused by the ambulance section on the basis of the current dispute, the Health Division said.

These patients had to make their own way to St Luke's Hospital.

Ambulance drivers felt they should not take part in a mock exercise of a simulated air crash, which took place yesterday, due to the ongoing dispute, the Health Division added. These exercises are carried out so that, in the eventuality of a real national disaster, those whose work is related to the emergency department would know exactly what to do.

The mock exercise still went ahead, using the airport's and St John's ambulances instead, the Health Division said.