Deal struck to end ambulance rest break controversy

A radical change to working hours will ensure ambulance staff respond to emergency calls while on a break.

The deal has finally be struck to resolve the controversy sparked 16 months ago by the death of Mandy Mathieson who suffered a heart-attack at her home in Tomintoul.

An ambulance technician on a rest break refused to turn-out even though he was in the village ambulance station just 800 yards from her house.

The Cairngorms National Park worker was pronounced dead by the ambulance crew based in Grantown, 14 miles away, who had to respond to the 999 call instead.

The deal, which have been agreed by unions, will see staff move to a 37.5 hour paid week inclusive of rest periods.

Currently, staff are rostered for 40 hours per week, paid for 37.5 hours and entitled to 2.5 hours of unpaid rest periods.

As they will now be paid for all the hours they are on duty, staff will be required to attend emergency calls throughout their shift period.

To support the redesign of the service, an additional 150 front line staff will be hired.

Interim arrangements, which will be in place while the new working hours are implemented, have also been agreed.

Confirming the agreement to the Scottish Parliament, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "I am pleased to say that a long term solution - that protects patient safety and also supports ambulance service staff - has been agreed.

"The rejection of the most recent offer made it very clear to me that a radically different proposal would be required in order to reach a solution to this issue and that is what has been found..

"To support this deal the Scottish Government will invest an additional five million pounds per year in the Scottish Ambulance Service to create 150 new front line jobs.

"The investment will strengthen the clinical response to life-threatening emergencies as well as the performance of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

"For remote and rural areas it will support increased numbers of community paramedics able to work in and with communities.

"The agreement ensures that additional funding will be invested in the ambulance service, rather than in additional payments to existing ambulance staff.

"No individual staff member will gain financially when required to attend an emergency call during a rest period.

"I welcome a resolution that clearly demonstrates what I have always known and believed to be the case - that the priority of ambulance staff is their patients, not their personal gain."

Ambulance chiefs faced angry members of the Tomintoul community just over a year ago at a public meeting.

During that, SAS hairman David Garbutt made a public apology for what had happened in the lead up to Ms Mathieson's death on October 16, 2010.

The ambulance chiefs also pledged at the meeting, attended by around 130 people, that the staff members involved - Owen McLauchlan - would never work in the Tomintoul area again.

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