Tea Breaks Again
I didn’t think it was long before those TEA BREAKS KILL headlines hit the papers, and I was right. Here’s one from the BBC and another from the Evening Standard. Neither article explicitly states that the delay in sending an ambulance caused the death (in fact, I suspect both patients may well have died anyway) but the implication is there, and I suppose the point is that no one will ever know if a quicker response would have made any difference.
I’ve done many a shift on dispatch since my last post on the matter and am now in a better position to comment. I am not a fan of the new tea breaks system. Neither, it seems, is anyone else in Control. In fact, the screensaver on the North East Desk computer now reads “I H8 TEA BREAKS!!” in big letters. Our niggles are as follows:
1) The whole break business is ridiculously complicated. Crews get a break “window” (the earliest and latest times they can take a break) which varies according to how long their shift is and when it starts. The length of their break also varies. When the staff on one ambulance are working different shifts (as sometimes happens when people work overtime) all hell breaks loose. The upshot is that us control staff have no time to actually get on with that saving lives stuff, as we are too busy being glorified break monitors.
2) Giving crews breaks is the sole responsibility of Control. Crews do not have a say in the matter. This means we have to weigh up whether we should give the breaks to all crews during quiet periods, thus having more than one crew having a break at a time, or stagger them throughout the day, meaning we will have crews off the road whilst holding calls, and risk several crews missing their break and going home half an hour early as compensation, meaning that come half six, you will be left with one single ambulance to cover your whole sector.
3) Some crews do not seem to want breaks at all. They would rather go home half an hour early, or get the £10 payment for no break. They grumble when you tell them to have a break, and take action to avoid having breaks, such as suddenly having to go off the road to clean their vehicle or taking the scenic route back to station in the hope of copping another call and missing their break window.
4) On the other hand, some crews really do want their breaks and then get very miffed with you when they miss them. They end up missing breaks when we are holding high priority calls in their area when their break is due. The crews who are most likely to miss their breaks are the busiest crews, and thus the crews that need a break most.
5) Even when we give crews a break and they want a break, they often do not want it at the time we have given it. This is perfectly understandable, if you are working 7am to 3pm would you want a break at 9am? Thought not.
6) Generalised trouble and sniping occurs when Control inevitably get in a muddle and ring crews up in the middle of their breaks by accident, or we try to put crews on break at the wrong time or wrong place, or we disagree with a crew about times (”our break finishes at 45! It’s 44 now, so we get a tenner for interrupted break! No, MY watch says 44!”), or someone accuses a crew of taking the scenic route back to station (I keep having to pipe up on the radio and say “T601, please return directly to station, over” which as you can imagine goes down a treat). I have lost count of the number of pointless rows that have broken out over tea breaks.
I think it should be up to the crews themselves to decide when, where and if they want to take a break. After all, if they feel they are tired/hungry/etc enough to need one, they should know. They should be able to ring us up and say “T601, taking a break at 1pm” and that should be that. If they don’t want a break, then that is their prerogative. I’ve never come across any other workers who have management or the EU breathing down their necks saying “right, you must take a break NOW!” - why should ambulance crews be any different?
And one final point, on a different note — I presume we’re going to get these headlines every time a person dies whilst a crew is on a tea break. Why don’t we get headlines saying “Man dies whilst ambulance crew attend 20-year-old with flu”? Because I can tell you, this happens a whole lot more often, and has been happening for years.
on January 11th, 2007 at 1:12 am
I agree with you (not that my opinion means anything because I don’t work as a call taker or on an ambulance) but it makes sense for crews to take a break when they actually feel they need one, and not if they feel they don’t. It seems it would make things a lot simpler for everyone.
I think these news stories are very unfair. As has been mentioned previously, everyone needs a break, and especially when they are relied upon to make life or death situations. Hunger and fatigue are known to alter a persons ability to think.
“Why don’t we get headlines saying “Man dies whilst ambulance crew attend 20-year-old with flu”? Because I can tell you, this happens a whole lot more often, and has been happening for years.” - Good point. Or even broken toes.
on January 11th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Lol, “especially when they are relied upon to make life or death situations” Err, that should read “life or death decisions”!!
on January 11th, 2007 at 1:19 am
“I think it should be up to the crews themselves to decide when, where and if they want to take a break. ”
My God. Isn’t that much too radical?
on January 11th, 2007 at 9:55 am
I guess someone figures that if people can choose their breaks then they could all be on break at the same time.
Thanks to the EU workingtime directive everyone is expected to take breaks. I do not work in anything to do with ambulances, I just enjoy reading this blog.
But the work I do has involved me working shifts before trying to install/fix something on a customer’s site. I had to produce time sheets, and was told that I had to show a certain amount of breaks (this was regardless of what I was actually taking - just records of working had to show the right amount of meal breaks taken)
Now I work flexitime. but i *have* to take a half hour lunch break in my working day.
on January 11th, 2007 at 11:32 am
As a german i don’t understand all this bitching around. First of all: We have break regulation since i don’t know when. And in some miraculous way it works and no one dies. Next thing: This evil EU guideline. Ever read it?
“Directive 2003/88/EC Article 4 Breaks
Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that, where the working day is longer than six hours, every worker is entitled to a rest break, the details of which, including duration and the terms on which it is granted, shall be laid down in collective agreements or agreements between the two sides of industry or, failing that, by national legislation.”
There is nowhere a 30 Minute break mentioned. And in germany (part of the EU) we have a 30 minute break in 6 work hours too, but it can be split in two periods of 15 minutes. So its not the evil EU, but the evil Blair government.
Oh and before i forget about it: The plan to let the ambulances decide when they want to take a break is not a very good one. Of course they will all take their break around noon or around the middle of their shift. And if you are not allowed to disturb them, then you won’t have enough ambulances to deal with patients.
Last thing “I’ve never come across any other workers who have management or the EU breathing down their necks saying “right, you must take a break NOW!” - why should ambulance crews be any different?” - Never met a truck driver? They have even more regulations. And it is not only for their safety and wellbeing but for the safety of everyone else.
on January 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
The only thing needed is more ambulances on the road!! But this will cost money so that wont happen!
on January 11th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Locally in Ruralshire, we are allowed to decide at the start of a shift if we are happy to have our breaks interrupted (in fact if we make no contact with control in the first half hour of the day, they assume we are happy to be disturbed). About two thirds of staff are happy to have disturbed breaks (for which we then get paid with a token compensation for spoilt food), this then allows control to organise moving crews around in the run-up ro break times allowing most people to get a break within their window, enough crews on the road and it works quite well, (I say quite well, for we are still ambulance staff and need to have a good gripe about something!)
Nicenurse x
on January 11th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Sven, as far as I know truck drivers do not have a control room telling them when to take breaks at all. They have to stop and rest every 4.5 hours, but the time and place of their breaks is decided by them. A truck driver will have been driving constantly for that 4.5 hours and so will always need that break. An ambulance crew may have had naturally occurring “breaks” between calls and not feel that they need an official break.
I see your point about all the ambulance crews wanting to take breaks at the same time, but this could be circumvented by having a rule that says “only one crew from each station on break at a time” or similar. I’m sure crews could work it out for themselves, they aren’t stupid!
No one (except the Sun newspaper!) is saying that the EU directive is the problem — the directive is simply saying that everyone should be allowed a break, which is common sense. The problem is the way that it has been implemented.
on January 11th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I love the way the BBC report has the words ‘long, demanding shifts’ in inverted commas, as if to suggest that a 12 hour shift isn’t really long and demanding at all!
on January 11th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I believe that in Germany a doctor forms part of the crew of each emergency ambulance, so I think they run things a bit differently over there!
What we need is more ambulances and crews, and less abuse of the service, which may be achieved in part by improved call triage ie. something other than AMPDS. It is not fair or safe to expect ambulance staff to go without breaks just because the service is too stretched.
Having said all that, I am not in favour of uninterupted breaks. I only ask that if my break is disturbed, it is for a genuine emergency and not for another drunk or a patient who walks to the ambulance and relatives follow in a car.
on January 12th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
@Waxy
Yes we have doctors in the rescue service, but not in every emergency ambulance. The normal thing today is, that we have cars comparable with the FRU with one driver and one doctor who meet an ambulance if needed. But we may turn down a caller with a cold. If a transport is not necessary we are allowed to bill the patient.
@Mark Myers
I see your point with the break times. About the EU directive: If you google for “ambulance eu break” an outside observer gets the impression that some EU-guy personally strangled the patient - and it is not only the sun.
on January 13th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
“I’ve never come across any other workers who have management or the EU breathing down their necks saying “right, you must take a break NOW!””
Call centre workers
on January 14th, 2007 at 2:02 am
“I’ve never come across any other workers who have management or the EU breathing down their necks saying “right, you must take a break NOW!”” Try bus drivers on routes longer than 50 km (31 miles) - the rule goes 4.5 hours driving? You MUST break now…
More worrying ae the daily and weekly rest requirements which on the surface appear flexible, (being designed by office-bound bureauocrats), but in the grim and real light of day actually considerably worsen drivers conditions…
You could also ask lorry drivers…
on January 20th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I’ve said this elsewhere, but once again, all this could be avoided if:
1. The ambulance service was given equal status with the police and fire brigade, and time-wasting calls were treated as a criminal offence.
2. AMPDS was thoroughly debugged, so that you could make breaks interruptible for ‘red’ calls with confidence. (Would any paramedics in the audience object to being pulled off their tea-break for a genuine, honest-to-goodness Category A?)
3. There were enough ambulances and crews to give everyone a carefully staggered rest-break without leaving the service short-handed.
on February 26th, 2007 at 12:56 am
When I read the ES article my view was the last thing we want is tired operators is the last thing we want operating high speed vehicles and making life/death decisions. Having read the blog it seems that its near impossible for ambulance crews to take break at the time most beneficial to them as they have no say in the matter this seems worrying no?