You are the beating heart and life-blood of the ambulance service. You place yourself in potential danger each and every shift. You are routinely exposed to physical and emotional harm, day in, day out - year on year. You lift, carry, clean, absorb, dress, administer, counsell, console and calm with charm and good humour. This takes an immense toll on you and your loved ones - now and in the future.

The job of a London ambulance clinician is widely considered one of the most stressful and demanding jobs on the planet. 

Burn out is rife among your colleagues. Is there any wonder. Targets and policies are wielded like a stick used to beat and badger. Support staff and management often hinder more than help with what is already a dangerous and demanding role. You are often left unsupported by the our service, GPs, 111, MH services and the Police. Even the hospitals can give you a proverbial kicking from time to time. But you suck it up and soldier on.

The public have always agreed that you deserve far better treatment, and so do we.

You are amazing, capable, compliant, strong, committed, caring and clever. But these things can be taken advantage of. 

Your resourcefulness has allowed the service to leave you struggling, often with sub standard vehicles and equipment - ill designed and bought by people who don't normally have to rely on them.

Your helpfulness and compliance has allowed the service to load evermore work and responsibility on your shoulders. You now do the work of a GP, Crisis Team, Carer, Police, Security Guard, Cleaner, Office Worker, Data Input Clerk, Tutor, Driver, Student, Counselor, Nursery Nurse, Mentor, Hospice Staff, Chemist, Phlebotomist and much more! And the list of your clinical responsibility and legal liability keeps growing and growing. Every new app, every clinical update, every backroom deal, every management notion and whim - adds to your workload.

Your strong sense of duty has allowed them to convinced you to swallow whatever is thrown at you.

And as the jobs grows inch by inch, week by week, your compensation does not. This is exploitation, this is wrong and this needs to change, and change now! 

We demand more real-term recognition through pay, holiday entitlement, paid breaks and increased green time through increased resourcing. When you are in a car or ambulance and in uniform in London, you can be approached by the public and often are. You are ALWAYS on duty even when on a break. You need to be given a fully paid break, without penalty for going to station or getting back early at the end of shift. The current system serves to deter crews from taking a break. Not taking a break is dangerous.

We demand the government increase the budget to allow these changes to happen fast. If there is no green time, it means we are under resourced. Crew must be able to experience regular green time during each shift. Crew must be encouraged to rtb so they may share experiences, bond and self support. This is invaluable for personal resilience, wellbeing and patient safety.

We demand that our budget is protected from waste through mis-management, false economies and vanity projects. Crews are badgered to be frugle with things like ecg paper even though printing off an example ecg helps to share invaluable knowledge and understanding. And yet, crews are issued with the false economy of such things as substandard, cheap dots and syringes. This causes far more waste, unnecessary stress, time, inaccuracy and delayed care. The new ambulances did not meet planned expectation, failing to meet weight targets and substandard quality and layout. Furthermore they regularly require patch modifications following crew reports. Due to lack of front-line consultation, personal interest and vanity of the decision makers, crews are left with having to grapple with these issues and faults in the field. This failure has led to waste, discomfort, avoidable stress and many injuries. This is unacceptable, it disrespects you and must be brought to account.

We demand that the executive and government become accountable for failure and waste brought about through lack of meaningful and transparent front-line consultation, poor planning and mismanagement. 

You are told that you knew what you were getting into. How could anyone fully appreciate what this job would require of you. Hell! after 5 yrs or more its still impossible to know what each shift may bring, each CAD.

You are told that its not your emergency. Of course its your emergency - you are there - in it, experiencing it, dealing with it. A soldier who does not start a war is still a part of it and is still profoundly affected by it.

You are told that if you don't like it, leave! No! If you don't like something, you should demand improvement!

With your support and permission, we will fight this fight for you! We will fight for improvements - because you are wonderful and you deserve better.