By Jacqueline Elmore
In 2020, while we stood on our doorsteps clapping and banging pans to show support for the sacrifices they were making, those very same NHS workers are now striking across England and Wales. Mostly in protest at declining wages, staffing conditions and the overall quality of care as a result of ongoing pressure on health services following a decade of budget cuts. Last month, saw frontline ambulance staff and call handlers go on strike for the fifth time. Yet despite the challenges they and we all face, the sentiment of the nation remains much the same: that the job they do is as important today as it was yesterday.
Graham Silander lives in Cuckfield. He also drives and works for the ambulance service and has done for almost 20 years. “I remember my first shift as if it was yesterday. I was terrified. There’s a photograph of me at my mum and dad’s all decked out in this bright green uniform, clean shaven with the look of absolute fear on my face. It was a night shift on Boxing Day 2005. It turned out to be a pretty bad first experience actually. You know how it goes. I was the new lad being shown the ropes and I think the guy I was crewed up with just wasn’t in the mood and probably just wanted to get home to his family. My next shift however was completely different. It was New Year’s Eve and everything just clicked. I loved it. I understood then that this was what I wanted to do.” Graham worked in patient transport for a year before he applied for his current job of Ambulance Technician. “I used to watch all the accident emergency guys with their blue lights and I thought maybe I could do that. I applied and got on the course and I’ve been doing frontline ambulance work for coming up to 18 years. I remember when I first started, someone saying to me that it might just be another day of work for us, but for most of the people we meet, certainly the people we should be meeting, it’s the worst day of their life.”
Graham who is now 45 is a husband and a father. The last few years in the job have been tough on him and his family, and the work is getting increasingly harder to do. “I’m tired. I’ve seen some pretty shocking stuff in my work particularly during March 2023 Covid. We used to say this was a job for life, but it doesn’t feel that way anymore. I can only speak from my perspective as part of the ambulance service. Imagine how awful it would be to work in a hospital A&E department at the moment. You only have to look at social care and all the other services that have been eroded by whatever it is – staff leaving, lack of funding etc – it’s just very sad because this affects everyone.”
Graham’s story is one that could be told a thousand times over. And there is so much more of the tale to be told, but there simply isn’t enough room in this Village People to share all of Graham’s insights.
To read more about Graham’s time working for the ambulance service, please find the full article in March’s issue of Cuckfield Life on page 26.