IT seems no sooner have we come to terms with last month’s news of £6m. in health cuts, than we hear just how much strain our ambulance and rescue service appears to be under.

Crisis is a word far too often bandied around but learning that its £2.05m. grant from HSSD will cover only 70% of burgeoning costs and that staff fear its ‘front line’ is being spread too thinly, is a real cause for concern.

As our special report today reveals, its chief officer – battling to balance the books, manage dedicated staff and meet the challenges of a diverse, modern operation with constantly rising demands, standards and training needs – openly admits we are now seeing ‘a difficult time for the service’.

But perhaps one of its greatest challenges is not a totally new one – public perception.

The service’s current funding system is an unwieldy, complicated hybrid of government funding, subscriptions, charges and public donations. It also uniquely encompasses three rescue teams covering every eventuality from routine calls to cliff rescues.

In other words, a round-the-clock first-class emergency treatment service that many of us take for granted.

Yet just how much about the running costs of the organisation is fully understood?

How many of us, for example, realised that the States grant is ring-fenced to cover only the costs of the ambulance section. It cannot be used, for example, for our paramedics? With the section already budgeting for a £300,000 deficit, funding for these other essential activities will either be hit or forced to rely on even more public donations.

To say the situation isn’t ideal is an understatement. It’s certainly not a model adopted by neighbouring Jersey, Isle of Man or the UK, who instead enjoy entire central government funding.

Yet this is no criticism of the service itself. It is one to be proud of and one that holds a special place in our small community where often members will be friends or acquaintances of those whose lives it is helping or saving.

Meet any of its teams and you are impressed by the commitment of those for whom this caring profession is so much more than a job, it is a vocation. And that’s before even mentioning its selfless army of helpers and brave volunteers, including those who man the marine ambulance and rescue boats.

It is a sorry state of affairs to see friction between staff and management who both, after all, share one main objective, to help others.

To see this relationship deteriorate and pressure build towards industrial action is particularly worrying.