Marrickville ambulance station: Greens councillors and Summer Hill MP Jo Haylen sound the alarm

The alarm has been sounded over ambulance response times in Sydney’s inner west, with Greens politicians claiming government policies are putting lives at risk.

Marrickville Ambulance station. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu.

The alarm has been sounded over ambulance response times in Sydney’s inner west, with Greens politicians claiming government policies are putting lives at risk.

The Greens candidate for Summer Hill, Izabella Antoniou, said the ‘superstation’ model which involves a larger station covering a wider area in lieu of suburban hubs, had added to the unrealistic workloads of paramedics who are covering larger areas, leading to a delay in response times.

Speaking outside Marrickville ambulance station, which has been operating at a lower capacity in recent times, Ms Antoniou called for the immediate full reopening of this Inner West station.

“After a series of ambulance station downgrades and closures in 2018 — including the Summer Hill station — to make way for the ‘superstation’ in Haberfield, paramedics met with me this week to outline how badly the model has failed,” she said.

“In the view of the Australian Paramedics Association (APA), Inner West residents are being put at risk by NSW Ambulance’s failure to reopen Summer Hill and/or Marrickville ambulance stations.

(L-R): Councillor Dylan Griffiths, Summer Hill Greens candidate Izabella Antoniou, APA delegate Brett Simpson, and Councillor Justine Langford protesting outside Marrickville Ambulance Station.

“Paramedics don’t sign on and sit around – they’re immediately sent out, and so we are hearing stories of paramedics having to race from Burwood to Marrickville in situations where minutes mean life or death … we cannot let this continue.”

Paramedic and APA delegate Brett Simpson echoed the warning and said restoring Marrickville’s ambulance station to its full strength was a matter of urgency.

Brett Simpson, APA Delegate and Paramedic.

“We’ve had our local paramedics from Marrickville shipped over to Haberfield in 2018,” Mr Simpson said.

“Paramedics have been crammed into these facilities and there is no longer a connection to the locals at Marrickville … we just want to live, and work, and support our communities where we know they need the help most.”

Mr Simpson said Marrickville residents were already suffering the consequences of the station’s reduced service capabilities.

“We see the locals in this area suffering everyday with massive blowouts in response times,” he said.

Marrickville’s ambulance station has seen a cut back in local services. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu.

“Some minor remediation work and renovations and the Marrickville facility could be up and ready to go in a matter of weeks — it is a shame that we‘ve been campaigning on this for so long and the government has done nothing.”

Labor’s Summer Hill MP Jo Haylen said, in a statement, the cut in ambulance services were failing the Inner West.

“I’m proud to have stood against the Liberal government’s cut to ambulance services throughout our Inner West community when they chose to downgrade Marrickville and sell off Summer Hill to developers,” she said.

“A Labor government will deliver hundreds of new paramedics and will begin the job of repairing the damage caused by 12 years of Liberal neglect of our health system.”

NSW Ambulance were unable to comment before publication.