Ambulance Employee Association demands on-call shifts in rural areas be scrapped over exhaustion and fatigue fears
Paramedics in some country towns are suffering from severe exhaustion and fatigue because of a system which leaves them either working or on-call for 96 hours at a time.
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Paramedics in regional areas are battling soaring levels of fatigue because of an on-call system which makes them available for work for 96 hours straight.
The Ambulance Employees Association is calling for crews in regional areas such as the Barossa, Barmera, Port Augusta and Port Pirie to be on active duty, rather than on-call.
The call for change is among several orders sought by the Association as part of industrial action against the South Australian Ambulance Service in the Employment Tribunal.
The hearings, which are expected to last all week, began on Monday with Paul Heywood-Smith QC, for the association, saying that paramedics were willing to forgo the extra money they make working overtime in exchange for getting their family lives back.
“This case is a genuine attempt to address a real crisis within the ambulance service,” he said. “It must have regard to the pleas of the staff who have brought this to the Tribunal.”
President of the Tribunal Justice Steven Dolphin heard that crews in regional areas spent four days on active duty with four nights on call.
State Secretary of the Ambulance Employees Association Phil Palmer said that paramedics were handed a pager and then, 96 hours later, gave it back.
Mr Palmer said the most well known example of the fatigue was an incident in Naracoorte in 2015 where two ambulances collided as they prepared to transfer a patient.
The incident led to a SafeWork SA investigation and some staff members being stood down from shifts because they exceeded the minimum fatigue test.
Mr Palmer said the on-call system left staff exhausted because they could not switch off at night and lay awake waiting for the pager to go off.
Barmera, Barossa, Coober Pedy, Ceduna, Loxton, Port Augusta, Port Pirie and Whyalla are all on-call areas.
However, the ambulance service is working on installing 24/7 rosters in Ceduna, Port Augusta and Whyalla because of the workload.
Waikerie, Renmark and Millicent have successfully been placed on the 24/7 rosters.
Justice Dolphin also heard that the amount of time paramedics spent ramped outside hospitals has tripled since 2014.
“Ramping does affect welfare,” Mr Palmer said.
“It vexes crews to convince a mental health patient that they need to go to hospital only to have them waiting in the ambulance for three hours.
“Waiting mental health patients have absconded and tried to commit suicide on North Tce by throwing themselves in front of cars.
The hearings continue.