The seven drivers with C license in Ibiza must cover all shifts of three ambulances that will have hydraulic ramp and will concentrate all scheduled services requiring the transfer of wheelchairs on the island. The rest of scheduled vehicles that are planned for the island, both with and without stretcher, will not carry ramp and will be used for stretchers or ambulatory patients.
This has informed La Voz de Ibiza the delegate of UGT, Vicente Nadal Ballesteros. A distribution that the Consellería de Salud has not yet confirmed to the consultations of this medium.
In practice, the three A2 with ramp will concentrate the reduced mobility and the seven drivers with this permit will have to share all these shifts, with risk of bottlenecks and delays. ” Those who have C/C1 will eat all the chairs,” summarizes Vicente (UGT), who claims to the Conselleria and the service company a public plan of assignment by bases and schedules. In the pitiusas, of 48 drivers, only 7 have the C license.
The origin of the funnel is in the technical specifications: by setting a maximum authorized mass (MMA) of over 3,500 kilos for many A2 vehicles, the contract required a C/C1 license to drive a good part of the programmed units, a requirement that most of the staff does not have. To get around this wall, Health and the company have begun to “lighten” vehicles (remove hydraulic ramps and seats) in order to lower to 3,500 kg and allow driving with license B. “It’s a champuza”, has denounced UGT.
What is different from now? Until now, there were ambulances with stretchers that could accommodate chairs and armchairs. Wheelchairs were held in place with an anchor. With the new “lightened” without ramp, this maneuver is no longer possible: there is no platform and no anchor for chair, so that these vans can only carry people walking or, where appropriate, stretcher transfers. In turn, Nadal Ballesteros recalled that wheelchair services must be guaranteed 24 hours a day.
Ambulances for Ibiza and Formentera
According to the
Of the total of 130 scheduled ambulances, the Consellería has clarified that it would modify 55 so that they do not exceed 3,500 kilos.
If all the demand for rehabilitation, discharges, tests and radiotherapy chair falls on only three ambulances, each technical incident or low driver leaves the island lame. UGT warns of reprogramming, longer waits and loss of clinical versatility to remove ramps and seats to reduce weight and reach the 3,500 kilos, which would allow the rest of the staff to drive them.
The Department of Health has informed that it will pay for training so that more drivers have a C license, according to the UGT delegate, there should also be compensation for those who already have such a permit. and paid for it out of pocket: otherwise, he says, it would be “discrimination”.
Formentera, minimum coverage
In Formentera there will be only one A2 with stretcher in the scheduled. “There is only one driver for an ambulance that is operational from 7 to 19 Monday through Friday. Formentera is marginalized because outside these hours should use basic life support ambulances for plant outputs, “explained the delegate pitiuso. “We are fighting for tengna the same rights as the Ibizans,” he said.
