Crisis-hit ambulance service which has left sick pensioners waiting hours for help hiring £65k ‘inclusion’ manager

A CRISIS-hit ambulance service which has left sick pensioners waiting hours for help is hiring a head of inclusion and engagement on up to £65,000 a year.

The Welsh Ambulance Service, whose motto is “being our best”, wants an executive to ensure its 4,000-strong workforce has a “culture of dignity and respect”.

The job advert says they will “lead and implement the equality, diversity, engagement and inclusion agenda for the Trust”.

Essential criteria for applicants includes “knowledge across the diversity and inclusion spectrum”.

Earlier this month, the service issued a “black alert” with medics admitting they were unable to manage 2,000 999 calls.

The unprecedented demand led to some patients waiting for several hours for an ambulance, with some patients being told to make their own way to hospital.

One was 89-year-old Melvyn Ryan, who had to be taken to hospital strapped to a plank in the back of a van due to a lack of ambulances.

The grandad suffered a broken hip and shoulder and a cut head following a fall at his home in Cwmbran, south Wales, earlier this week.

His granddaughter Nicole Lea, who found him, said: “I knew the NHS was in trouble and wait times were long.

"But what I didn’t know when I called 999 was that they’d just turn around and say they weren’t sending help and expect me to figure out how to get him to safety.”

Last night the job ad was blasted by campaigners as yet more taxpayers money on “wokery”.

Elliot Keck, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance said: “These right on roles are a waste at the best of times.

“With the ambulance service in poor health, they are frankly indulgent.

“These funds should be used for frontline services.”

Ambulance staff are due to go on strike on Wednesday and again on December 28 in a dispute over pay.

The co-ordinated walkout in England and Wales by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.

Unison, Unite and GMB are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.

The walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies.