The Hodgman Liberal Government is employing 42 new paramedics in rural and regional areas of Tasmania, with recruitment for the first six positions beginning in the coming weeks.
We have allocated $14.9 million for the progressive recruitment of the 42 paramedics, with three branch station officer team leaders – in the South, North and North-West, as well as three extra paramedics at the Wynyard Ambulance Station to be employed this financial year.
Next year, we will employ an extra three paramedics in Dodges Ferry, three in Bicheno, three in Deloraine and three in St Helens. Over the remaining four years, a further 24 paramedics will be recruited to regional areas across the state.
This is part of the Tasmanian Government’s $125 million plan to boost ambulance services over the next five-and-a-half years to keep rural and regional communities safe and make Tasmanians’ lives better.
These additional paramedics will also reduce fatigue, increase ambulance responsiveness and reduce overtime costs.
Our strong investment in ambulance services is already paying off, with response times in Tasmanian coming down over the past year, at the same time as a growing number of responses. This is a real improvement in our service meaning that ambulances are getting to people who need it in an emergency in less time than before.
The Department of Health Annual Report showed median emergency response times were 12.8 minutes statewide in 2017-18 – the lowest since 2014-15, with a reduction in all areas of Tasmania over the past year, despite increasing demand. Ambulance Tasmania has attended more than 10,000 additional responses in 2017-18 compared to three years ago.
In our first term of Government, we added an extra crew in the South, North and North-West of the state.
Our health targets include:
- Reducing emergency ambulance response times to national average waiting time by 2025
- Reducing smoking rates to below the national average by 2025, and halve the gap between State and national youth smoking rates (for under 25s)
- Reducing Tasmania’s rate of obesity to below the national average by 2025
- A 20% reduction in the suicide rate by 2022
- 90% of Tasmanians being treated within clinically recommended timeframes for their elective surgery by the end of the next four year term of Government
- 90% of emergency presentations being in and out of the Emergency Department within four hours by 2022
See all our targets at https://www.tas.liberal.org.au/sites/default/files/BuildingYourFuture.pdf
