Mount Gambier paramedics

Tuesday November 29, 2022

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Health. Can the minister inform the house when Mount Gambier's new paramedics, including a new 24/7 crew and a new 12-hour regional transfer crew, will be on the road?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:53): Thank you very much for this very sensible and actually important question to the people of South Australia from the member for Mount Gambier. He and I and the Premier have spent a lot of time talking about the issues in terms of our Ambulance Service, and at the election we outlined a very detailed plan in terms of additional ambulance resources to go in across the state.

It all adds up to 350 additional ambos over the course of four years. There are a significant number in the city, but also 150 of those 350 will go into regional areas. I am very pleased to report that that includes 18 who will be on the Limestone Coast, based in Mount Gambier, because we identified that and listened to the community as a significant need in the community. Twelve of those will be an additional emergency crew. Six of those, comprising three paramedics and three ambulance officers, will be an additional regional transfer crew.

As at the election, we outlined a schedule for bringing these online because we know that it takes time to recruit the ambos, to train the ambos, to put those in place. The time that we said for those to come on board in Mount Gambier was July 2024 and we are on track for that. In fact, what we have done now is detail the entire planning for our additional recruitment and crews to come online across the whole state. This has now been posted across all our ambulance stations, I am advised, because we want ambos to know when those opportunities for additional crews come up so that hopefully there will be ambos who will see that and say, 'I'm interested in joining that crew when it comes online in Mount Gambier in a bit over 18 months' time.'

This is a clearly detailed list that goes crew by crew across the whole state. I am very pleased to report that, as of just last week, we brought an additional two of those crews on board, covering the Marion and Edwardstown areas. I was joined by the members for Gibson, Badcoe and Elder at the Marion Ambulance Station, where those additional crews have come on board, in addition to where we have already brought crews on board in the Norwood area as well.

This is on track for delivery of those 350 ambos across the whole state. There is a clear need when it comes to Mount Gambier. We have seen a number of pressures in terms of the ambulance services in those areas, so I am really delighted that we are on track for delivering the commitment we gave at the election.

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