Angry paramedics call on PM for full funding
Angry paramedics have protested in such numbers over a St John Ambulance fundraising advertisement calling for donations ‘‘to help our crews that responded to the Christchurch tragedy’’ that the organisation has taken it down.
And one paramedic, Dean Brown, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calling for an overhaul of the broken funding model for ambulance services, and the penny-pinching that has been used as an excuse to keep ambulance workers’ pay so low.
Brown, an intensive care paramedic, was one of the first people in the Masjid Al Noor on March 15, entering with armed police to help survivors.
He was also one of the ambulance workers angered by the St John advertisement, telling Ardern in his open letter: ‘‘Due to an overwhelming response from staff that believed that this ad showed a complete lack of respect for the slain and their families, it has since been removed.
‘‘You do not ever see police and Fire Emergency New Zealand going to such levels to get funding,’’ he wrote.
‘‘This letter is written to you to express our deep concerns and anger at how one of the three core emergency services is run in New Zealand.
‘‘The public deserves a firstclass ambulance service provided by the Government and not a charity.’’
Both police and Fire Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) were fully funded and regulated by the Government, he said, while the ambulance service was run by St John, which was a charity, and was not fully funded.
Police are funded from general taxation, while Fenz is funded from levies on house, car and contents insurance.
Just 75 per cent of the funding for St John ambulances was provided by the Government, with the rest coming from donations from the public, Brown said.
‘‘The method of funding has led to substantial issues within the service, which have been highlighted by the fact that a majority of frontline and communications centre ambulance staff are currently taking a number of strike actions due to the breakdown of contract negotiations with St John as we have been told for years there is no money.’’
Brown asked Ardern to put the ambulance service on the same funding footing as police and Fenz.
First Union’s national ambulance co-ordinator, Sarah Stone, said she had received hundreds of complaints by staff.
‘‘Staff are really angry that St John has used this catastrophe, and their hard work during it, to ask for more money from the community through advertising on its website.
‘‘It implied the money would go to ambulance officers when none of these donations is earmarked for ambulance officers and staff are fighting for decent pay.’’
Negotiations with St John for better pay for ambulance workers had stalled, but instead of refusing to work, ambulance staff have been protesting through actions such as not wearing uniforms, not completing paperwork so patients could not be invoiced the callout fee of about $100, not attending commercial events and writing campaign messages on ambulances in chalk.
St John acknowledged it had removed the advertisement but said it was only responding to a public desire to make donations.
‘‘As a charity, for many years we have given the New Zealand public the ability to donate online on our website, and due to a large number of requests from the public, we added a Christchurch donate section on our homepage, in response to these requests,’’ said spokeswoman Beverley Tse.
But she said: ‘‘This was never promoted or advertised and due to internal feedback, we have now removed this link.’’
Unite Union said New Zealand ambulance workers were among the lowest paid in the developed world, with a starting wage of just $20 an hour.