Government`s health division has deplored the "unjustified" industrial action that ambulance drivers are taking on directives issued by the hospital services` section of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.
Under the directives, the drivers are not transporting outpatients, discharged patients, or patients to other hospitals. Neither are they performing duties using coaches and cars at night, handling stretchers or cleaning ambulances.
In recognition of their role and work, ambulance drivers are paid at salary scale 17 rather than scale 18 which is applied to motor transport drivers in the public service, the division said.
The drivers took action after talks over a claim for an allowance broke down. The claim was made after the drivers attended a first-aid course.
"Surely, attending a simple, short first-aid course does not justify further remuneration or taking industrial action which affects patients requiring the services of an ambulance," the division said.
The division said that although the UHM had declared that it was providing an emergency service, it was not satisfied with the level of such a service, adding that the intransigence of the union might place at risk the safety of patients and other health workers.
On Wednesday, for example, a bed-ridden elderly patient was kept waiting in the accident and emergency department for six hours as ambulance drivers refused to take her home, in spite of pleas on humanitarian grounds. Eventually the patient had to be taken home by taxi, the division said.
There were also delays in transferring a patient to the airport who needed to go abroad for treatment.
A young patient seen at the accident and emergency department following an attempted suicide required urgent admission to Mount Carmel Hospital. However, once again ambulance services were not provided and the patient had to be accompanied to Mount Carmel by a nurse and a security guard using normal hospital transport.
Yesterday morning, a patient suffering from mental illness required admission to Mount Carmel from Paola Health Centre. Again, no ambulance service was provided.
While recognising the right of ambulance drivers to strike, the division said it deplored such incidents, as it believed that patients` interests and safety should be held above any union dispute considerations.
This should be the ethos of any healthcare worker worthy of such a designation, it added.