By Keeley Knowles
Bedfordshire on Sunday
BEDFORDSHIRE, England — An ambulance service has introduced a new policy that claims to offer staff £20 payments if they are called out on an emergency during their meal breaks.
Bedfordshire on Sunday understands that front line emergency service crews are entitled to the payment if they say they don’t mind being disturbed and are then called out on their meal break.
An employee who wished to remain anonymous said that the new policy was a ‘huge concern’ for many staff as it could potentially put lives at risk if all the workers on a break at the same time say they don’t want to be disturbed.
The concerned member of staff said: “The meal break is for 45 minutes (if working a 12 hour shift) but every resource can be sent on an emergency call after 30 minutes.
“However, if an ambulance crew decide that they don’t mind being disturbed and if they are dispatched on a job within the first half hour of their break, they receive a payment of £20.
“In essence, it is great that ambulance staff can have a protected break as some shifts are so busy that crews could go from job to job dealing with traumatic and emotional incidents and need time to relax before heading out on more jobs.” A spokesman for the service said that meal breaks were staggered so not all crews go on a meal break at the same time or in the same geographical area.
He added: “The new meal break arrangement was agreed following extensive consultation with staff and staff side, and is proving to be very successful, leading to our response times to patients improving and staff receiving their breaks in a timely manner.
“It applies to all front line emergency service crews and harmon - ises the three legacy Trust arrangements.
“Staff working on the front line need to have the opportunity to have a meal break, as they are often working 12 hour shifts; meal breaks are staggered so not all crews go on a meal break at the same time or in the same geographical area, and ambulances are moved to provide 999 cover to maintain our service to patients.
“The arrangement went live in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire on Friday, April 1, but has been operating in the rest of the region for a couple of months.”
More than 3,000 calls were received by the ambulance trust to incidents in Bedford town centre in just six months.
The figures released by the East of England Ambulance Service show that 3,213 calls between the hours of 10am and 6pm were made for incidents in the town centre.
What is more shocking is that the numbers relate to an area just two kilometres in diameter and averages at almost 18 calls to the town centre every day.
Ambulance service spokesman Gary Sanderson said: “The call out figures over the six month period may seem very high to someone looking from the outside, but you have to appreciate the area in question is a densely populated area comprising of private abodes, business dwellings and shops where our crews are predominately called out too.”
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