Staff shortages putting ambulance service on the brink, union says

Tasmania’s ambulance service would struggle to respond to a major incident, the paramedics union has warned.

The Heath and Community Sector Union has warned the state’s ambulance system is in crisis management every day.

THE crisis within Ambulance Tasmania was so severe that its ability to response to a major incident was questionable, the paramedics union says.

Staff shortages have pushed the ambulance service to the brink in recent weeks, Heath and Community Sector Union state secretary Tim Jacobson said.

Management is struggling to fill vacant shifts as staff become fatigued from constant overtime as demand for ambulance services surges.

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In one incident a patient’s relative was drafted to drive an ambulance because the sole paramedic aboard was busy delivering care.

“It is getting towards catastrophic, we’re going to see a system failure,” Mr Jacobson said. “We have crisis management every day.

“Even this morning, ambulance management have been running around trying to plug the gaps in the roster for tonight to try to avoid a crisis.

“The night before last they had got to the precipice of asking volunteers to come into the cities.

“Every Band-Aid that could possibly be put on it has been put on it. It’s now diabolic.”

Mr Jacobson said staff and volunteers were working as hard as they could to plug the gaps, but there were limits.

It came on top of ambulances being worked beyond the end of their effective working life and the slow rollout of much-needed equipment such as electric stretchers.

“People are exhausted, you couldn’t put a number of how bad morale is at the moment, people feel like their goodwill is just being trampled by overtime and being on call,” Mr Jacobson said.

“It’s getting to a catastrophic situation where there just won’t be available resources to respond to cases.

“Not only have we got this issue with the paid paramedics, but with volunteers now, because they’ve been relied on far too much

“There is going to be a catastrophic incident and we’re not going to be able to respond to it.”

Labor leader Rebecca White said Tasmania’s ambulance service was at breaking point.

“Tasmanian paramedics are under an enormous amount of stress and are exhausted from having to work extra shifts because there are no crews to replace them,” Ms White said.

“Ambulance Tasmania is struggling to recruit and retain senior staff and volunteers due to the deterioration of work conditions.

“This is compounded by the impossible ambulance ramping situation which has resulted in some crews forced to spend 13 hours of a 14-hour shift parked in front of the hospital because there are no beds to treat sick patients.

“Tasmanian paramedics feel they can no longer do their jobs and Tasmania is facing the very real prospect of more paramedics leaving the state.”