Tasmania relies on volunteer ambulance officers to respond to emergencies in regional areas and assist paramedics, but volunteering is declining. There are 11 ambulance stations around the state that are operated by volunteers only, including Flinders Island and King Island. The paramedics' union is calling on the Tasmanian government to focus on recruiting more paramedics, increase pay and improve working conditions.
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00:00For the past 11 years, Mike Breen has been responding to medical emergencies in Tasmania's
00:07north.
00:08He's not a paramedic, but a volunteer ambulance officer at the Beaconsfield station.
00:13It's very unpredictable, you never know what you're going to get.
00:16We get a pager message giving us basic information about the job and then sometimes you rock
00:24up and it'll be totally different to what you expect.
00:27Other ambulance officers support paid paramedics by driving vehicles and helping to care for
00:33patients.
00:34I'll be taking the basic observations of the patient using various types of equipment depending
00:40on what's required and helping the paramedic from that perspective so they can concentrate
00:46on gathering all the relevant medical past history.
00:51While Beaconsfield has enough ambulance volunteers, many other towns don't.
00:55According to Tasmania's health department, about 60% of volunteer shifts are not filled.
01:01The Health and Community Services Union says this sometimes leaves paramedics to attend
01:06emergencies on their own.
01:08It means for instance that the paramedic cannot be in the back of the vehicle and when they're
01:14transporting the patient they can't monitor the patient.
01:17So it's actually a dangerous situation and shouldn't occur.
01:20The union says relying on volunteers is risky and the government should focus on recruiting
01:25paid paramedics.
01:26If we have competitive salaries we're going to be able to recruit and retain staff and the
01:32government have an opportunity to do that now because bargaining is just beginning and
01:36we need to see pay parity and matching conditions with the mainland.
01:39The Health Department says the shortage of volunteer ambulance officers is due to a nationwide decline
01:45in volunteering.
01:47It says it's actively recruiting more volunteers and 78 new paid paramedics.
01:51International Audience Member
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