Scottish Government must come up with a plan for newly qualified paramedics

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Qualified young paramedics are unable to find work, meanwhile, a lack of crews is leading to long waits for ambulances.

And instead of the newly minted. paramedics being welcomed with. open arms, only around half of those graduating this summer have jobs in the Scottish Ambulance Service.

For the last few years, the Daily Record has reported on the crisis in the. ambulance service. We have told. how people have died waiting for an ambulance while others are kept in the back of vehicles outside hospitals as A&E departments are swamped.

Unions have complained repeatedly about the lack of staff, which means they have to work late and miss breaks. Their stress levels have led to increased sick leave with the net effect of even fewer crews on the road.

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But despite all this, many talented young people are left without work. Many have applied to England and Wales where there are vacancies.

Those services are reaping the benefits of Scottish Government-funded training while Scots face long waits to get to hospital.

The Scottish Ambulance Service says it is in the middle of its biggest ever recruitment drive but that is little crumb of comfort for those who have been unsuccessful in landing a position.

Universities are increasing the numbers of paramedic training places but unless these reflect the demand for jobs, they serve no real purpose.

The Scottish Government must come up with a plan to use these. skills in other areas of medicine if there are no paramedic jobs so we can keep our talented, young graduates. in Scotland’s NHS.

Kids under fire

It’s no surprise a charity has concluded there is a “childhood emergency” following the rise in online abuse. The Record has been reporting on the issue for almost two years through the Our Kids, Our Future campaign.

We have called on social media giants to do more to prevent harmful content appearing online. But as the Children First survey found, things are getting worse not better.

The majority of respondents believe growing up in Scotland is worse than ever. Much of the anxiety and fearexperienced by our youngsters is cause by exposure to unacceptable material.

Despite calls from this newspaper, parents and politicians, nothing of substance has been done. It appears the social media giants don’t have the appetite to change or simply don’t care.

The UK Government must make sure these firms are hammered if they don’t take adequate measures to protect children from damaging online content.

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