Confidential Petition: Reduce Unnecessary Stress for Paramedic Students

The Issue

If you work for the London Ambulance Service and wish to keep your name confidential, then please sign either with simply your ambulance station name, your department name, or say "Academy Student" and (optionally) provide your cohort number (if you are a paramedic student). Your email address will not be shared with the LAS.  

Russell Burgess, a student Paramedic with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), and formerly top of his class in examinations for previous roles, took his own life in July 2019, after being forced to sit three difficult re-sits on the same day, and after being denied annual leave to study and prepare for them.

We, the undersigned, believe that stress for students on the LAS in-service training course is far too high, and call on the LAS and Health and Care Professions Council (who regulate the course) to ensure:

- Adequate study time, including for re-sits

- A maximum of one re-sit per day

- People who fail a re-sit should be allowed to study that module again, rather than being excluded from the entire course

- Proper pastoral care is available at ambulance service training centres, as is common in most colleges and universities, and there is the ability to raise concerns with people who are not the same as your examiners. The pastoral care officer must be present, and offer support, whenever someone is told that they have failed a re-sit. 

Please sign this petition. There is no need to display your name publicly. You can add a comment, if you want (but this website only allows you to do so after you've signed).

The petition will be given to the Coroner ahead of Russell's inquest at Poplar Coroner's Court on 31 October 2019, from 1000-1630. Feel free to pop into some or all of the inquest too, to hear a discussion of mental health, well-being and stress in the LAS. 

avatar of the starter
Dave RavalPetition StarterI am the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Hackney South and Shoreditch
This petition had 1,172 supporters

The Issue

If you work for the London Ambulance Service and wish to keep your name confidential, then please sign either with simply your ambulance station name, your department name, or say "Academy Student" and (optionally) provide your cohort number (if you are a paramedic student). Your email address will not be shared with the LAS.  

Russell Burgess, a student Paramedic with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), and formerly top of his class in examinations for previous roles, took his own life in July 2019, after being forced to sit three difficult re-sits on the same day, and after being denied annual leave to study and prepare for them.

We, the undersigned, believe that stress for students on the LAS in-service training course is far too high, and call on the LAS and Health and Care Professions Council (who regulate the course) to ensure:

- Adequate study time, including for re-sits

- A maximum of one re-sit per day

- People who fail a re-sit should be allowed to study that module again, rather than being excluded from the entire course

- Proper pastoral care is available at ambulance service training centres, as is common in most colleges and universities, and there is the ability to raise concerns with people who are not the same as your examiners. The pastoral care officer must be present, and offer support, whenever someone is told that they have failed a re-sit. 

Please sign this petition. There is no need to display your name publicly. You can add a comment, if you want (but this website only allows you to do so after you've signed).

The petition will be given to the Coroner ahead of Russell's inquest at Poplar Coroner's Court on 31 October 2019, from 1000-1630. Feel free to pop into some or all of the inquest too, to hear a discussion of mental health, well-being and stress in the LAS. 

avatar of the starter
Dave RavalPetition StarterI am the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Hackney South and Shoreditch

The Decision Makers

London Ambulance Service
London Ambulance Service
Health and Care Professions Council
Health and Care Professions Council

Petition Updates