HACSU says ambulance vehicles need to be replaced earlier

A Tasmanian paramedic says it’s not uncommon to see problems with ambulances, saying they should be replaced earlier. Latest.

An Ambulance Tasmania vehicle.

A Tasmanian paramedic says he often notices problems with emergency vehicles on his shifts, as the health union clashes with the government on exactly what point a vehicle should be replaced.

The Health and Community Services Union says it’s always been the case that vehicles would be replaced when the odometer reached 210,000kms.

But the Department of Health disputes this figure, saying the vehicles are retired at 250,000kms.

An Ambulance Tasmania vehicle.

Last week the union told the Mercury at least seven emergency ambulances were in urgent need of replacing, because they’d exceeded 210,000kms and had “a lot of faults”.

It’s a something Paramedic Jan Pur agrees with.

“It’s very hard to be confident in the vehicles and provide an adequate service, when every second shift you’re going to expect something will be broken on your vehicle,” he said.

“This may be a lock, this may be a door.

“We’re seeing vehicles break down, we’re seeing issues with our fleet, and rather than replacing them in a scheduled, maintained regime, we really seem to be putting bandaids on everything.”

HACSU state secretary Robbie Moore said the union had raised concerns about the fleet after “significant damage” was discovered on an ambulance in operation.

He said the point at which vehicles are retired should be 210,000kms.

“Ambulance Tasmania argue that the 250,000km limit is the same as most other jurisdictions, however, HACSU has held longstanding concerns that Ambulance Tasmania does not have sufficient internal fleet safety and management measures every other Australian ambulance service has,” he said.

HACSU State Secretary Robbie Moore at the RHH. Picture: Chris Kidd

A Department of Health spokesman said Ambulance Tasmania was unaware of any ambulance in operation with significant damage.

“Damage to ambulances is repaired to industry standards by accredited repairers, and any ambulance with damage such that it is deemed unfit to drive is removed from service until the damage is repaired,” he said.

“Twenty-one new ambulances have been progressively delivered to Ambulance Tasmania since December 2023. Fourteen of these are in operation and the remaining seven are in the final stages of commissioning, including installation of TasGRN (Tasmanian Government Radio Network) terminal and mobile data terminal installation.”

Previously the department has said that Ambulance Tasmania followed the advice of manufacturers on all vehicle mechanical issues and if a vehicle was identified as unsafe, it would be retired at any time.