By XAVIER SMERDON
AMBULANCE paramedics are fighting a losing battle and waiting for the worst to happen as they try to do more with less.
Star spoke exclusively to a western suburbs paramedic last week about the failing health system that continues to put resident’s lives at risk.
The professional life saver of five years, who did not want to be identified, said that he and his colleagues were constantly stretched to their limits.
“It used to be that if you worked a 14 hour nightshift you might hope to take a nap every now and then but now every single night of the week is like a Friday or Saturday night,” the paramedic said.
“In that 14 hours we’re going constantly, often without a meal break.”
Documents provided to Star showing the number of dropped paramedic shifts state that on 28 October, a Friday night, there was no ambulance on night shift in Werribee, Laverton or Altona.
According to the paramedic, ambulances could often be stuck at Western General Hospital in Footscray and elsewhere for up to four hours, waiting for a free bed before they can offload their patient.
Just a few weeks ago there was an incident in Deer Park and the only available ambulance was in Healesville, he said.
“You’re constantly feeling fatigued and you’re fumbling,” he said.
“It’s not good enough because if we need to administer drugs and we miss a decimal point, we could kill someone.
“We’re turning up to jobs way later than we need to be to deliver appropriate treatment and quite frankly we’re getting sick of apologising to patients for being so late.” General Secretary of Ambulance Employee Australia and a paramedic of 15 years, Steve McGhie, told Star it was getting worse for everyone involved.
“There’s no question that it’s in a situation where it’s the worst it’s been for a long time, if not ever,” Mr McGhie said.
“It just has a compounding effect on everything that paramedics do. It’s putting people in the western suburbs, and the rest of Melbourne, at great risk.”
Mr McGhie said that it was up to the government to firstly get more paramedics to service Victoria’s booming population and secondly reduce the gridlock at hospitals.
“Ambulance Victoria (AV) advises that 130 new paramedics will be recruited over the coming months,” a spokesperson for Health Minister David Davis said.
The service was reviewing rostering arrangements to better align services to peak demand times, in addition to new recruitment, the spokesperson said.
