An ambulance driver has criticised the UK Government over letters sent to thousands of staff encouraging them to take roles on heavy goods vehicles.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has sent a million letters to every holder of a C1 driving licence in the UK as it attempts to ease the current shortage of lorry drivers.
However, the recipients include those who drive ambulances – with the letters arriving just weeks after the army had to be called in to get people to and from hospital because of pressures on the service.
Driver Ciaran McRae – who is also an SNP member of Aberdeen City Council – spoke of his fears colleagues could be tempted by the Government’s attempts.
DfT staff insisted they were not able to exclude ambulance workers from the mailing list because of data protection laws.
Bid to ‘poach’ ambulance staff
But Northfield and Mastrick North councillor Mr McRae accused ministers of “trying to poach” drivers – and warned the country is at risk of a “full-blown crisis”.
“Given I gained my C1 driving license for the Scottish Ambulance Service, if I’m receiving this letter then every other ambulance driver in the country will have too,” he said.
The UK Government trying to poach Scottish Ambulance staff to drive HGV's is a pretty poor move. pic.twitter.com/5JGebg21mM
— Ciarán McRae (@CiaranMcRae) September 29, 2021
“The fact that ambulance drivers are receiving this letter shows that UK could face stark choices between health care, food and fuel over the coming months.
“It’s a reflection of shambolic situation we find ourselves in with Brexit, where we’ve made this country an unwelcome place to thousands of HGV drivers and we’re now forced to take such desperate measures as this.
“The UK Government need to completely rethink their immigration policy if they’re going to stop this becoming a full-blown crisis.”
‘We don’t want drivers to change jobs’
Last week reports of problems with deliveries to petrol stations led to panic-buying across the country – which then resulted in long queues, shortages and even fights on forecourts.
The issues have been put down to a lack of HGV drivers, and led to the government offering temporary visas to drivers from the EU.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport (DfT) said it was not possible to remove ambulance drivers from the list of recipients.
“We don’t want ambulance drivers to change jobs, or to be diverted from their vital work saving lives,” he said.
“The letter was automatically sent to almost one million people with HGV driving licences, and it was impossible to narrow the copy-list by profession due to personal data protection.”
Aberdeen City Council’s Conservative group leader Ryan Houghton said the government “would be getting criticised” if it had not taken steps to attract more drivers.
“British Army drivers were brought in to help the Scottish Ambulance Service which is faltering under the mismanagement of Ciaran’s SNP bosses in Edinburgh,” he added.
“I’m sure we all want the temporary shortfall to be closed as quickly as possible and that includes reaching out to those who hold licenses but don’t currently work as HGV drivers.”