Discontent is seething among the ambulance staff in Sollefteå. 19 out of 36 employees have resigned, which is more than half the workforce. Helena Modin, who started working at the ambulance as recently as two months ago, is one of them.
– There are many emotions. I’m very sorry to have to resign and I’m pissed off, to put it bluntly, she says.
“We are not there”
The dissatisfaction is about the new working time directives from the EU, which means that the 24-hour shifts will disappear. Instead, the ambulance staff must work shorter but significantly more shifts each month. According to the staff, this will negatively affect both privacy and health.
Ambulance nurse Miriam Sundström says that this can lead to everyone not getting the help they need.
– Worst case scenario is that I am driving a secondary transport to Sundsvall and an accident happens here. That it is a cardiac arrest or a child who needs our help and we are not there. That is my biggest concern, she says.
Could it be like that already today?
– It could happen today and it has already happened.
Criticism of the negotiations
The ambulance staff are also sharply critical of the fact that the Vårdförbundet has not succeeded in negotiating the possibility for them to continue with the 24-hour shifts.
When TV4 Nyheterna contacts the Vårdförbundet, it emerges that there is, after all, the possibility for the ambulance staff to continue with 24-hour shifts. But then Region Västernorrland must take the initiative to do so at the Vårdförbundet.
– We have had dialogue and collaboration meetings the whole time and stated that this will be difficult with the operations, but they (ambulance operations) have not applied for any exemption, says Ewa Lodin, vice-chairman of the Vårdförbundet in Västernorrland.
But when TV4 Nyheterna talks to Peter Neuman, head of the ambulance service in Region Västernorrland, he says that he has not been informed that you can apply for an exemption.
– If there is now such a dispensation, we will of course apply for it as soon as possible, he says.
“Should we be treated like this?”
Ambulance nurse Miriam Sundström is critical of the ambulance staff not being involved in the process.
– Should we be treated like this? Nobody comes out and asks what do you think, how do you feel, what do you want? It is as usual, decisions are made above those it concerns, she says.