NSW Labor plans $150 million boost to bush paramedics

Labor leader Chris Minns has committed to an additional 500 paramedics in regional and rural NSW after a damning parliamentary inquiry found the state’s strained ambulance service was particularly stretched in the bush.

In his first major health policy announcement, Minns says Labor will make a $150 million commitment to fund an additional 500 paramedics in Labor’s first term, to ease the burden of chronic paramedic shortages and the strained rural and regional health system.

Ambulance response times have been trending down for a decade.Credit: Janie Barrett

The new workforce would be spread across areas with the most need, which would be determined following consultation with healthcare professionals.

Minns said if elected in March, Labor would also be work to progressively upskill new and existing paramedics to intensive care and extended care paramedics.

The government announced in its June budget it would employ more than 1850 extra paramedics and build 30 new stations to improve struggling front-line healthcare.

A budget commitment of $1.76 billion over four years was set aside in the state budget, including funding for an extra 210 ambulance support staff, as well as 52 nurses and eight doctors.

However, Minns said the landmark inquiry exposed a decade of mismanagement, leading to significant gaps in service delivery and a dire shortage of clinicians and healthcare professionals across the regions.

The lack of access to highly skilled paramedics and slower ambulance response times was an issue that was raised consistently in the inquiry, he said.

It found that regional NSW was underserved by paramedics of all levels, and there were entrenched policy barriers that prevented intensive care and extended care paramedics from working in rural and regional NSW.

Ambulance NSW response times have also been trending down for a decade. The latest data from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) for the April to June 2022 quarter found that responses to emergency patients took more than 16.3 minutes – the longest since reporting began in 2010.

In the most recent quarter, 58.9 per cent of callouts reached the 10-minute benchmark in metro areas, but only 54.7 per cent in rural areas.

Minns said the NSW health system could not cope with another four years of band-aid solutions.

“We need long-term structural repair and this announcement from Labor today is only the beginning,” Minns said.

“I want to thank the hardworking paramedics, especially those in the regions who go to work every day and do the very best they can in difficult circumstances.

“I’m interested in finding long-term solutions to the health crisis in NSW. It’s not an easy task but I am determined to do it.”

Labor health spokesperson Ryan Park said ambulance services, particularly those in rural and regional areas, “are in desperate need of an injection of resources to fix the mess, and the shortages crippling our health network”.

Labor will also seek bipartisan support for an in-principle agreement to the outcomes of the NSW government’s taskforce that has been established to look at professional recognition for paramedics across the state.

Professional recognition for paramedics will formally acknowledge the change in education, training and skills required of paramedics over the years.

This follows an announcement recognising paramedic practitioners in Victoria, and is modelled on the Britain, where paramedics attend more complex callouts, can give more medications, and use more advanced equipment than they currently do.