AMBULANCE COSTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22316, 29 April 1947, Page 4

AMBULANCE COSTS

CLAIMS OF UNION 40-HOUR SHIFT WEEK HOSPITAL BOARD CITED The possibility that the application of the award conditions to the employment of ambulance drivers would make it necessary to take over the service now conducted bv the St. John Ambulance Association was recognised at yesterday’s meeting of the Cook Hospital Board, when notice was received from the clerk of awards that the board was cited as a party to the ambulance drivers’ industrial dispute. Information as to claims submitted by the drivers’- union was given’ with the citation, the conditions including a 40-hour five-day week in shifts, with uniform supplied. In discussion on the letter it was pointed out that -it would be necessary, if the proposed conditions were conceded, to have a staff of at least four drivers to maintain a 24-hour ambulance service with reliefs. “This is the death-knell pf the St. John Ambulance Association’s services,” said Mr H. H. Barker, who added that the association could not possibly face the cost of maintaining four drivers. The board accepted the citation as inevitable, it being stated that there was no means by which it could avoid liability if the union's claims were granted. The Waiapu Hospital Board has previously advised its intention to institute its own ambulance service, and it was decided that the Waiapu board should be informed of the new development. The board also agreed to continue with a previous decision to confer with the St. John Ambulance Association as to the continuation of the ambulance service.