Charlotte Varcoe
THREE graduate trainee paramedics will be allocated to the Limestone Coast following an announcement made by the Liberal Government.
The government announced 14 graduates would be spread across 11 sites within regional South Australia, with Millicent receiving two trainee paramedics and Naracoorte receiving one.
The trainees are part of an ongoing Graduate Paramedic Pathways (GPP) program where they will fill current vacancies within rosters at the allocated sites.
Committing to a four-year contract, the trainees will also study a first-year diploma with Central Queensland University then undertake a university-based paramedic degree.
“We chose Naracoorte and Millicent because there were a range of sites with different needs and these areas had vacancies in their rosters,” Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said.
“They will be working as paramedics on the road as full-time trainee paramedics who will manage their education parallel with working on the road.”
Ambulance Employee Association member Cody Scholes said it was great that some of the vacancies were able to be filled by the trainee paramedics but there still needed to be additional staff on the road.
“We as a union support the paramedic pathways program because we want more ambulances officers into the paramedic roles,” Mr Scholes said.
“However rosters are still short and even in Mount Gambier there is a shortage in rosters because to work with these trainees there needs to be paramedics which means those crews are now getting split up.”
He said, due to shortages within the region, available workers would not have a consistent skill-set due to some of the crew still being trainees, volunteers or a mix.
“The GPP system can also make it confusing for the patients because if they call an ambulance one day for a problem and they do something for the patient and the same problem happens again the next day the patient will get a different skill set which can really set them back,” Mr Scholes said.
“It also creates long waits and sometimes we have seen that the long waits for ambulances either allows the patient’s symptoms to be resolved or they deteriorate and their families take them to hospital themselves.”
Shadow Minister for Health Chris Picton said, while welcoming the new staff into the region, the graduate program was a “band aid solution” which would not address the overall problem.
“All staff going into ambulance services are welcome but this won’t address the problem,” Mr Picton said.
“These staff will fill vacancies and are not additional staff or paramedics on the road.”
Mr Picton said he believed the community would be “appalled” by the announcement and said there was nothing from the Liberal Government for additional resources.
“This solution is a drop in the ocean compared to the ambulances needed in the region,” he said.
