Record View: It is ludicrous that people tasked with caring for desperately ill and vulnerable people can sometimes work 10 hours or more without a break.
Paramedics and ambulance technicians are real frontline heroes – working flat-out to keep us safe. They regularly work beyond their finishing time when they get held up queuing at hospitals with patients and missing breaks has become the norm.
It is ludicrous that people tasked with caring for desperately ill and vulnerable people can sometimes work 10 hours or more without a break. As professionals, they will never turn their backs on the most seriously ill and if that means they have to delay their break they will do it unhesitatingly – but they must be given adequate rest time when the need demands.
Overtired workers are more likely to make mistakes when caring for patients. Unless staff are looked after, more will leave an already understaffed service. And that would be a healthcare disaster for all of us.