HACSU says ambulances are in urgent need of replacing and serving

Tasmanian ambulances are in urgent needs of replacing, a union claims, warning Tasmanians could be in danger if nothing changes. Here’s how many they say need to be replaced.

Ambulance Tasmania. Picture: Tasmanian Department of Health

At least seven emergency ambulances are in urgent need of replacing, the state’s health union claims, warning Tasmanians could be at risk if nothing is done.

Health and Community Services Union state secretary Robbie Moore said vehicles are supposed to be replaced when the odometer reached 210,000kms, a number which the Department of Health disputes.

Mr Moore said seven vehicles in the emergency fleet were overdue for replacement, a claim also rejected by the department.

“What we find is, the vehicles over the 210,000, there’s a lot of faults,” Mr Moore said.

“We’ve had dangerous situations where doors have opened that shouldn’t have, there’s been issues with stretchers which are dangerous for patients and staff.

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

“The risk is vehicles breaking down … the reality is patients can die if a vehicle breaks down, either getting to the patient or getting to the emergency department.

“We’ve had cases where vehicles have broken down and they’ve not been able to get to that person and they’ve had to deploy another vehicle.”

Mr Moore said it wasn’t only emergency vehicles which were due to be replaced.

“A lot of the patient transport vehicles are over as are some of the vehicles like 4WD and specialist vehicles as well,” Mr Moore said.

“We have patient transport vehicles that are up around 300km.”

An Ambulance Tasmania vehicle.

Mr Moore said many vehicles were also not serviced on time.

“There’s nobody managing the fleet, Ambulance Tasmania should directly employ people to manage the fleet,” he said.

“We do need to purchase more vehicles as well, it takes quite a lot of time, they’re bought from overseas.

A Department of Health spokesperson said the planned lifespan for emergency ambulances was five years, or 250,000 kilometres.

“The same strategy is applied by most Australian ambulance services using Mercedes Sprinter vehicles,” they said.

They said none of Ambul

AAmbulance Tasmania vehicle.

ance Tasmania’s operating emergency ambulances had exceeded 250,000km.

“All ambulance vehicles are serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommended service schedule,” they said.

“AT follows the advice of manufacturers on all vehicle mechanical issues and if a vehicle is identified as unsafe, it will be retired at any time.

“As an additional safety measure, the Department of Health and Ambulance Tasmania works with the manufacturer to develop an additional safety checklist for services of ambulance vehicles that have travelled more than 200,000km.”