Right, a bit of a moan.

When us ambulance people signed up for Agenda for Change, we realised that while we would be taking a cut in our basic pay, the deficit would be made up by our 'unsocial hours' payments.

It works like this - I am paid a basic wage. If I work 'unsocial hours' then I get paid more for those hours. 'Unsocial hours' are currently between 7pm and 7am in the morning.

The government is changing the boundaries of the unsocial hours to 8pm to 6am. That's two hours less a day.

I'm hoping that our pay will remain protected (i.e. not drop below the amount I was getting paid before Agenda for change started).

Secondly, more crap from the government. We, and other healthcare workers are going to get a pay rise pegged at 1.5% as opposed to the rate of inflation which is 3.6%. I'm looking forward to that extra 2p per hour given that our role keeps expanding.

Is it any wonder that workers keep leaving the NHS?

Finally, the London Ambulance Service ended up financially 'in the black'. So our budget is being cut by £3 million and is being given to a failing department. This has meant a reduction in overtime, which again has reduced some people's take-home pay. Given that our trainees are paid 75% of the basic wage and many of them rely on the overtime, now there isn't enough to go around. While manning is at an all time high, there are plenty of rumours that large numbers of ambulances are going un-resourced*.

So we are being 'punished' for saving money, we are going to get paid less and our pay-rise is lower than inflation.

If it wasn't for the government it'd be a nice job.

I'm glad I'm not the boss of the LAS.

Maybe Dr. Rant has the right idea.

*I was told off for not being politically correct when calling the staffing of motors 'manning', hence 'resourced'.

Birmingham University medical school has banned full face veils in clinical areas. It just interests me how such things spread, not that I wish to turn this blog into 'veil-watch'. As an update to the post about headscarfs being made part of a school uniform, it appears that this was misreported (although the cynic in me considers that they have decided to quickly change the policy after the media attention). Check the comments of that post for more details.

(Via Warren Ellis)

Oh yes, the Wordpress question doesn't mean that I'm moving this site to Wordpress - I'm a Huge fan of Blogware and my hosting company. I'm just interested in starting up another blog for non-ambulance stuff.

It seems that the discussion on the wearing of a veil can go the other way. A UK school has made the hijab part of the school uniform, even though 10% of the children there are not of the Islamic faith.

Countdown until the tabloids catch wind of this, 3...2...1...

(Thanks to It's Your Time You're Wasting, Not Mine)

Not that I want this site to turn into a 'veil issue' site, but this BBC news story has perfect timing. (Plus I have a day off which I have spent mostly sleeping and am too tired to write a big post).

A Muslim woman has been suspended by a school in West Yorkshire after she insisted on wearing a veil in lessons.

Bilingual support worker Aishah Azmi, 24, was asked to remove the veil after pupils found it hard to understand her during English language lessons.

I'm not the only one then. (Although it'll be interesting to see how the tribunal goes).

Another blogger has been stopped from writing. In the grand scheme of things where people are killed for their words not too important but nevertheless not good in a 'free' society.

If you came here from here – I have no idea about the news about chemical masks, but I do know that we are all going to be given radiation detectors.  I mentioned it here along with a suggested new name of ‘London Ambulance and Canary Service’.

Also the news story says ‘Paramedics’, as an EMT am I therefore expendable?

(Yes, yes, I know that ‘Paramedic’ is media shorthand for anyone who works on an ambulance).

I'm a big fan of police blogging, hardly a day goes past without me working with the police on one call or another. So I know that they are human beings with the same frustrations and concerns as the rest of us. Unfortunately they come in for a lot of criticism from the press and are unable to respond. Their PR department seems to prefer 'spin' and 'whitewash', playing the violins while the Titanic sinks rather than providing the truth of police work. The police blogs give us an insight into a secretive world where their hands are tied by the government and this has prevented them from making the real difference that many of them joined the service to do.

The police management have a habit of shutting down the blogs though, perhaps they can't see how well they humanise the police services. No longer is the harassed copper who comes to take your details a uniformed cog in the machine, but is instead someone who is so buried under paperwork and government targets that they can't help you no matter how much they would like to.

It looks like another police blog is in danger of disappearing, Inspector Gadget is to have an 'informal chat' with the Professional Standards Unit. His sources tell him that this will be about the blog, and that he may be in some serious trouble.

At no point has he brought the Police Service into disrepute, he has not interfered with any investigation (ongoing or in the past) and his blog has shown people the world over the struggles and strains of trying to serve the public while facing unreasonable pressures from government. He tells the truth without it being whitewashed with 'spin'. The should be no reason why his bosses should want it removed.

This leads onto the wider question as to why the Police hierarchy don't like the truth being told. Nor why members of the police seem to have their Human Right of freedom of speech and expression removed from them.

Please, go over to his site, read the archives to see what a great blog it is and leave a comment of support. He deserves it, and hopefully with a show of public support it may demonstrate to his seniors why we need police bloggers.

It would be a terrible loss to see him disappear like 'The Law is an Ass', or 'Brian's Brief Encounters'.

Why can't they be as blog friendly as the London Ambulance Service?