No ambos on road

A text message sent to off-duty paramedics requesting a return to work to cover the shortfall at Gisborne, Woodend, Kyneton, Castlemaine and Heathcote branches last Saturday night.

Angela Crawford

Local paramedics posted to the southern Calder region have raised the alarm over a lack of resources regularly putting lives at risk.

On two occasions last week, no ambulances were available between Bendigo and Melbourne.

Last Saturday night, Ambulance Victoria's duty manager sent a text message to off-duty paramedics requesting a return to work to cover the shortfall at Gisborne, Woodend, Kyneton, Castlemaine and Heathcote branches.

Steve McGhie, Ambulance Employees Australia (Victoria) secretary, said it is simply not good enough. 

"It just goes to show there are clearly nowhere near enough ambulance resources in those southern areas of the Calder," Mr McGhie said.

"It's clearly putting Victorian lives at risk and we'll continue to raise those concerns with Ambulance Victoria and the government.

"We're constantly contacted by members along that area about the lack of resources, the lack of coverage, and the lack of MICA (Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance) resources in response to cases that require MICA response."

Ambulance Victoria's regional manager, Loddon-Mallee, Kevin Masci, said AV received a higher than normal demand for ambulance resources on Saturday night. 

"In instances such as these where demand starts to escalate, it is part of Ambulance Victoria's standard practices to quickly attempt to implement additional resources via different methods such as recalling off-duty paramedics. Off-duty paramedics who respond to a recall message are offered overtime," Mr Masci said.

"At 10pm on Saturday we had over 10 ALS (Advanced Life Support)/ MICA units working within the area between Bendigo, Kilmore and Melbourne to respond to both emergency and non-emergency patients.

"We are continuing to increase the number of paramedics and services that we are providing throughout Victoria as part of a $151 million State Government commitment.

"As part of our service delivery plan, the placement of MICA paramedics to regional MICA ambulances and MICA single response units (SRU) is strategic and based on sophisticated modelling used by ambulance services in many countries. Advanced Life Support paramedics across Victoria provide a very high level of patient care and where required are supported by MICA."

DISPUTE ONGOING

Mr McGhie told the Guardian that there has been no development in the union's ongoing negotiations with Ambulance Victoria (AV) over wages and MICA placement issues. 

"We haven't had another wage offer since February from the government," Mr McGhie said.

"(The offer) was for five per cent but to get that they expected members to give up some annual leave, some sick leave and some allowances to cover it. (The union is seeking a 30 per cent increase over three years).

"When we did our calculations on that offer, we worked out that if paramedics did give up those entitlements it would have amounted to a $1 a week wage increase.

"We've had 28 meetings with them since August 2012," Mr McGhie added. 

Member for Macedon, Joanne Duncan, said she found it "almost impossible to believe" that no ambulances were available across the Calder corridor twice in the space of one week. 

"I am seriously concerned that whole townships are being left dangerously exposed and lives are being put at risk," Ms Duncan said. 

"The Premier and the Health Minister need to explain why this is happening and provide assurances that our towns will not be left without ambulance coverage again."

Ms Duncan is also concerned about the lack of MICA resources allocated to the region and will lodge a petition on this issue in Parliament next week. 

The union will next meet with AV on June 14.