‘It’s only a matter of time before an incident occurs’: Ambos say they’re ready to walk off the job due to severe fatigue
Remote NT paramedics say they are ready to walk off the job due to severe fatigue, with some concerned a serious incident could occur.
Northern Territory
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REMOTE Territory paramedics say they are ready to walk off the job due to severe fatigue, with some concerned a serious incident could occur.
Ambos from Gove, Tennant Creek and Katherine, who did not want to be named, told the NT News they were at breaking point due to the on-call roster and the current fatigue management systems.
“We have felt fatigued nearly every block,” one said.
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“We all agree that it’s dangerous and it’s only a matter of time before an incident occurs.”
Another paramedic said: “Regional staff are talking about resigning, thinking about a career change.
“Staff across the Territory are at breaking point.”
It comes after the United Workers Union NT released the results of its 2021 St John NT Union Member survey, which revealed 51.76 per cent of participants strongly agreed that staff welfare was ignored in regional centres “due to the current on-call rosters and the lack of fatigue management”.
One comment read: “Look at what’s happening to the Katherine Afternoon Crew, a 12hr shift + 8hrs on call for 4 shifts in a row. Absolutely absurd. And 96hr rosters in Tennant and Nhulunbuy with no fatigue management procedure. So dangerous just an accident waiting to happen! Wouldn’t happen in Alice Springs or Darwin, so why are the regional centre left out. Regional staff undervalued and not entitled to same work conditions and fatigue management.”
A St John Ambulance NT spokeswoman said the organisation would not comment on the survey until it discussed the results with the UWU.
Ambulance Services director Andrew Thomas was confident new fatigue measures to be implemented would help staff.
“FatigueSafe is one initiative among others that we are confident will have a positive impact on fatigue risk management,” he said.
“We have reduced the on-call roster for Katherine crews by two hours and changed the recall criteria to ensure that crews are only called when the night crew is unavailable or unable to respond to cases as per the dispatch criteria.
“We have been in negotiation with the UWU regarding conditions and benefits for our Emergency Medical Dispatchers, Ambulance and Patient Transport crews since November 2018 and have met with them more than 30 times. We have developed a range of benefits for the health and wellbeing of our staff, until the EBA is finalised and agreed upon, we are not in a position to pass on any of these benefits to our staff.”
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