Paramedics across the Hunter are becoming increasingly concerned with the lack of support NSW Ambulance is offering toward paramedics reponding to emergency calls alone.
Intances of single paramedics being assulted and intimidated continues to rise and it's unacceptable and unfair on these paramedics who go to extrodinary lengths to save peoples lives.
The underlying problem is simply the lack of resources and staff.
Secretary of the Australian Paramedics Association Steve Pearce, says there are not enough paramedics to handle the demand of calls for help from the public and they need at least 500 extra paramedics to be recurited to ensure the existing workload is managable.
Frontline Paramedic Steve Pearce works in the rural parts of southern New South Wales and says two parmedics working together as a dual team is always best practice. It allows them to make rational decsions together, they are able to manage a paitent much more effentially and safely and most importantly there are two sets of eyes to make sure both the paramedics and the paitent are safe at all times.
Over 4 years ago paramedics of NSW started the campaign, "Don't send me single" to ensure officers that are sent out alone are not relied on to complete emergency work if the NSW Ambulance have run out of dual crews.
"The campaign invested in safety stratergy cards so our members could refuse to engage in unsafe practices with confidence," Steve Pearce says.
Paramedics across the state are calling on the NSW Government to increase of paramedics in the system to improve the safety stanards for the colleges.
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| Frontline paramedic- Steve Pearce Image- APA NSW |
