Further Sussex Ambulance Protests
GMB, the union for ambulance staff, are to have further protests over unpaid wages outside of the surgeries of Doctors who either chair or sit on any of the 7 CCG’s that make up the Sussex group who disastrously privatised Sussex Patient Transport service and for failing to carry out sufficient due diligence tests and service provision model checks before handing the Managed Service Provision to Coperforma on April 1st 2016. (See notes to editors for previous GMB press releases)
The next protest will be held on Tuesday September 20th at 11am outside the surgery of Dr Martin Writer, Chair of the NHS Eastbourne, Hailsham and Seaford Clinical Commissioning Group at the following address:
Park Practice
Eastbourne Park Primary Care Centre
Broadwater Way
Eastbourne
BN22 9PQ
This will be followed by a protest at 2pm outside the surgery of Dr Christa Beesley, Chief Clinical Officer of Brighton and Hove CCG at the following address:
Woodingdean Medical Centre
Warren Road
Woodingdean
Brighton
BN2 6BA
Gary Palmer, GMB Regional Organiser, said: “These protests will go on until collectively the combined Sussex CCG’s correct the devastating mistake of awarding the Patient Transport Service to Coperforma.
Not only has that error seen patients journey experiences plummet to an all-time low but has left GMB members who, despite not being paid, have carried on working and would have continued to work if Docklands Medical Services Ltd hadn’t closed its doors on the 14th September. GMB members have continued to deliver the best service possible without jobs for the second time in 11 weeks following the previous contractor VM Langford’s liquidation.
Although GMB blame Coperforma, it’s only what we expect from the private sector full of sharks and shysters looking to rip off the NHS, but the responsibility for this whole mess lies squarely at the door of the Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group members.
It’s a responsibility the GMB now expects them to exercise in bringing this service back into the NHS family immediately, either with South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) or even into a Sussex based NHS Hospital Trust to administer on behalf of the whole of the county.”
