The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) has welcomed a new short film issued by UNISON that highlights the important concerns of ambulance staff who sometimes work beyond their allocated shift hours, in what is known as a ‘late finish’.
AACE Managing Director Martin Flaherty OBE, says:
This film is a very powerful reminder of the dedication and commitment of so many ambulance staff who are sometimes required to work long hours under very difficult circumstances.
Working on an ambulance is like no other job, but it is no secret that demand for ambulance services is at its highest level ever and continues to grow. This inevitably impacts on staff and late finishes are an unfortunate consequence of this pressure. We are committed to finding new ways for our members to address this issue.
A number of ambulance services have already implemented or are piloting policies to reduce late finishes and we know more can be done to reduce them. Therefore AACE will be holding further discussions on minimising late finishes.
On the wider front, our members are also doing a great deal to get to the root cause of these issues by doing more to try and manage the unprecedented demand facing ambulance services. For example, many are recruiting more frontline staff, increasing the clinical support in their emergency control rooms to help manage more calls safely over the phone so an ambulance response is not necessarily required, working more closely with hospital A&E departments to limit handover delays, conducting public awareness campaigns to urge the public to use their ambulance service wisely and only for genuine emergencies, and much more.
AACE will continue to do all it can to support its members in supporting the safety and wellbeing of all ambulance staff whilst continuing to deliver the best possible service to patients.”
