The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

DISGRUNTLED emergency medical personnel have called on Prime Minister Perry Christie to increase their risk allowances by $259 and offer them health insurance after reportedly being “beaten and assaulted” on the job.

During a small protest at the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday, Bahamas Public Services Union shop steward and NEMS paramedic Lavarda Adderley, with 30 emergency medical technicians (EMTs), stressed their need to have their risk allowance of $41.60 monthly raised to $300 until they are provided with health insurance.

She said the reason for their demands was because EMTs are constantly “in harm’s way”.

“We are on the front line,” she said. “The police are there, too, but what do they have? Bullet proof vests and a gun. But what do we have – a face mask?

“A face mask and a pen? So what we’re saying is we really need insurance. We’ve been shot at, persons have threatened our lives, we’ve been beaten and assaulted,” Ms Adderley said.

“We have exhausted all of our avenues. We are concerned about our risk and the safety of our colleagues and myself out there on the job and our health insurance. We are actually on the front lines. Yes the police have guns and a bullet proof vest, but what do we have? Nothing.”

Shane Kemp, one of Ms Adderley’s colleagues, was recently assaulted while doing his job.

Shane Kemp said he was beaten last Monday by the relatives of a patient he tried to assist. He said he was escorting a patient with minor injuries to the accident and emergency department when two men pulled up to the hospital in an SUV requesting assistance for a girl who had been shot.

He proceeded to take the patient to the trauma room when the two men who had taken her to the hospital barged into the emergency room. After a heated exchange with a doctor, one of the men started fighting the doctor and the second man pounced on Mr Kemp who was standing nearby.

Before he knew it, he said, the man fighting the doctor suddenly pounced on him, too.

“I was punched, kicked, everything on the job in the line of duty,” he said. “I was trying to assist the victim, and in return they jumped me and the doctor and beat us about our bodies. We was just trying to help them and assist them, and this is the thanks we got,” Mr Kemp said.

“Something needs to be done. Health insurance; we need someone with ammunition on the job with us. I feel threatened doing my job. I came home 5 o’clock that morning to my wife drenched in blood just in trying to assist the public, and that’s the thanks I get.”

Other EMT’s, who did not want to be named gave accounts of being bitten on their chests, being shot while handling a patient, and receiving death threats. Mr Kemp suggested that police should be “stationed at the hospital at all times with firearms”. He also suggested that armed police accompany them while they did their duty.

The group did not meet with Prime Minister Christie as planned yesterday, but they met with his Under Secretary, Philip Turner. However, a second meeting has been arranged for Tuesday when BPSU Secretary General S J Miller said the union and the EMTs will have everything documented and prepared.