Patients not parcels
- Sarah Owen
- Feb 22, 2018
- 1 min read
If the healthcare service was a human body, the ambulance drivers and the patient transport service would be the legs, carrying us from ‘a’ to ‘b’. But continued privatisation and cuts to services and standards threaten to hobble a vital part of the NHS.
Our members working in ambulance services transport patients to and from hospitals in the South and London met with Shadow Health Secretary of State, Jonathan Ashworth MP in Parliament to share their frontline experience.
During the meeting, the GMB members told Labour’s health lead about the worrying state of vehicles being used, the reliance of minicabs in some areas and the desperate need for defibrillators on ambulances.
One ambulance driver summed up the problem in three words when he said we are dealing with ‘patients not parcels.’
These examples are all symptomatic of the push for greater privatisation by this Tory Government, where profits are wrongly being put before profits.
GMB alongside Labour, with strong support from Jonathan Ashworth, will continue the fight to ensure that drivers have access to the resources, support and time they need to treat patients according to their need, not to line the pockets of private companies.
