PARAMEDICS are being threatened with disciplinary action for speaking out about systemic issues within the service, the JEP can reveal.
In an email obtained by the JEP, Justice and Home Affairs chief officer Kate Briden warned ambulance staff that talking to the media was “inappropriate and contrary to the codes of practice employees agree to while working in the public service”.
Ms Briden warned that speaking to the media could harm the service’s reputation and would not be tolerated, as such actions could, she said, erode public trust and potentially result in loss of life.
“Damage to the reputation of the service runs a very real risk of Islanders losing confidence in the care we are able to provide and ultimately runs a risk of loss of life. Any behaviours contrary to these agreed policies will be dealt with according to the relevant policy,” she wrote.
Ms Briden’s November email comes amid growing concerns about the decline of the Ambulance Service and in direct response to an article published by the JEP last week that highlighted the difficult and dangerous circumstances faced by frontline staff.
This includes a steep rise in assaults, an alleged lack of support from management, and what several workers describe as a “toxic” workplace culture that is endangering both workers and the public.
It is not the first time that the department has gagged ambulance staff: in a email dated 25 June also obtained by the JEP, chief ambulance officer Peter Gavey told all ambulance staff that they were “bound by contractual obligations concerning the maintenance of confidentiality” not to speak to the press during Tom Le Sauteur and John Sutherland’s trial. Last month the men lost an appeal against their conviction for failing to provide reasonable care to a man who later died.
Mr Gavey said that all employees were barred from speaking to the media without submitting a written request to Justice and Home Affairs chief officer Ms Briden first.
Sources told the JEP that it was not the first time that ambulance staff had been threatened by management against speaking to the press. One person told the JEP that following the publication of an article that mentioned an anonymous ambulance staff employee, all members of staff were threatened with “severe disciplinary action” if they spoke to the media.
The source also recalled other cases where employees had been threatened with disciplinary action for speaking to the media about rising violence against ambulance staff.
“The claim that it is a contractual obligation has been used over the last five years to prevent us from talking to the press about the decline in the service,” the source said.
“Whatever the original purpose of the contractual obligation, it has been twisted and misused.”
The JEP has asked the Justice and Home Affairs Department to clarify what contractual obligations specifically forbid staff from speaking to the press. It has not yet responded.
Freedom of expression in the workplace is guaranteed under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression [including] to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.”
Ms Briden’s email comes just one week after the Ambulance Service launched an awareness campaign about attacks on staff which included first-hand accounts from employees who had experienced such incidents.
