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.