999? Sorry, but mercy crews are at Gaelic lesson

SCOTLAND’s hard-pressed ambulance staff are to be taken off duty to learn Gaelic as part of the SNP’s controversial drive to revive the language.

Rather than respond to emergencies, paramedics will have to set aside time in their working day to take Gaelic lessons. Bilingual signs will also be used on uniforms and ambulances.

Under orders from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has drafted a 30-page plan with a wide range of measures to be put in place in the next four years.

Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said: ‘This is the Scottish Government’s obsession to push Gaelic at all costs rearing its head again.

‘The SNP should be supporting staff to improve response times and cut down on sickness absence, not playing political games with paramedics.’

Every public body must provide quango Bòrd na Gàidhlig with plans on how to help save the language from extinction.

The organisation gets £5.5 million of public cash a year to spend on a language spoken by only 87,100 people, or 1.7 per cent of Scots. Just a third judge themselves to be fluent.

The SAS’s plan for 2016-20 proposes measures including ‘Gaelic awareness and Gaelic language skills training’.

Although the SAS says the initial priority will be ‘areas with Gaelic-medium education or 25-per-cent-plus Gaelic usage in the community’, the classes could eventually be provided to all staff.

Staff who deliver vital CPR resuscitation training in schools will also be asked to speak in Gaelic to pupils.

A bilingual SAS logo is also to be created in order to ‘demonstrate equal respect for both languages’ and staff will be encouraged to include Gaelic in email signatures, social media and ambulance websites.

The service also plans to improve access to Gaelic interpreting services.

In the new draft plan, SAS chief executive Pauline Howie said: ‘The Scottish Ambulance Service is committed to the aspirations and objectives included in the National Gaelic Language Plan and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.

‘Gaelic is a precious part of our communities, culture and heritage.’

The SAS does not say how much the plan will cost.

Eben Wilson, director of the Taxpayer Scotland pressure group, said: ‘The costs of these initiatives are never made clear and we wonder how many people would vote for it if asked. This is no time for “nice to have” policies.’

However, the Government spends about £23 million a year promoting the language, half of which goes to Gaelic channel BBC Alba.

An SAS spokesman said: ‘Any changes in signage or branding would only be undertaken when they are being replaced in a normal lifecycle, so as not to incur additional costs.’

Recent figures revealed that 35 patients had to wait more than an hour for an ambulance to arrive, including people in cardiac arrest.

Another 484 – including cases of choking, drowning and road accidents – waited more than half an hour in the period from March 2014 to February 2015.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Efforts to support a future for the Gaelic language have enjoyed cross-party support.’

‘Costs are never

made clear’